June 12th, 2012
NewsRescue- We all heard of the sub-prime mortgage crises in America when the so-called housing bubble burst.
It was explained as a cross board crises that affected all Americans. However the disparity in the effect of this Wall street greed generated recession, which acutely spanned the years from 2005-2010 and still persists, were not recognized by many.
The rich got richer and the poor, who happen to mostly be minorities got twice as poor.
Middle class White Americans were marginally affected.
According to a June 2012 Federal study from 2004-2009, just discussed on CNN, and the similar PEW study presented by NewsRescue in 2011, Americans as a whole lost 40% of their worth(to the corporate monsters) in the major years of the recession.
This statistics as presented by CNN gives a broad sense of the loss without highlighting the gravid disparity and Black and Hispanic American skew.
In 2005, according to statistics from PEW, the average White household was worth $134,992. By 2009 it dropped to $113, 149. A drop of about 16%.
The black household net worth dropped during the same period by almost 60%, from $12,124 to $5,677!
Comparing the net worth of Black households in America to White households in America gives a staggering differential at all times.
White households were worth 10 times the average black household before the crises and by 2009, according to the PEW research data, Whites were now worth about 20 times Black households.
New York Times yesterday described the drop in household net worth to levels that obtained in the early 90s.
Disparities in income, especially among minorities and low class whites have fueled Occupy Wall street protests against corporate greed, major banks and multinational corporations, and these riots, though curtailed by the strong arm of the Obama administration and an obvious corporate media continued black out, have been predicted to continue.
Over 6000 Americans have been arrested since the riots started in 2011.
The 1% got richer
During the same period, according to the Washingtonpost, “…Between 2005 and 2009, the share of wealth owned by the wealthiest 10 percent of all households rose to 56 percent from 49 percent. The same shift to the wealthiest was found among all ethnic groups. Among Hispanics, the share of the wealthiest rose to 72 percent from 56 percent, and among blacks it rose to 67 percent from 59 percent…”
At a net worth of about $6,000, Black families in America compare to much of the so-categorized ‘developing world’.
Little surprise they are affected by diverse socio-economic related health disparity problems.
Blacks are twice as likely as Whites to die from heart disease and twice as likely as Whites to be diagnosed with diabetes.
50% more likely to have prostate cancer. Seven times as likely as Whites in America to contract HIV. The most common cause of death in American women aged 25-35 is AIDS.
More likely to be overweight, to have cervical cancer, colorectal cancer. The list of health care disparities is limitless.
And the point in this is, the triad of education, poverty and disease, plagues Blacks.
Poverty also leads to an increased risk of incarceration, as a result, 1 in 10 Black men in America is in jail at any given point in time, and 1 in 5 or less will have a rap sheet.
Addressing the risks for being Black in America can only be via addressing the marked poverty in this population bracket.
As can be expected, even though on June 6th, it was found to be closing, Blacks have a lower life expectancy compared to their White counterparts in America. A Black expects to live 5.4 years on average- less than his White counterpart.
Katrina, apart from being a sad tragedy, was phenomenal in enabling many Americans and citizens of the world, realize the marked poverty and social disparity that existed in America.
Black America as much as any poor African nation is need for US government and NGO critical programs and support.
There are two countries within the one United States- Black and White ‘countries’. As far apart in socioeconomic dynamics as the broad idea of developed United states is when compared to Eritrea for instance.
Left unaddressed, the Black American will remain a population facing economic, political, medical and intellectual extinction.
