All Rise!
This Evenings Lesson:
A Black Man Sitting on a Recliner in the Living Room is Not the Solution to Problems in Black Communities.
In 2017, Demos published a study titled, “The Asset Value of Whiteness:Understanding the Racial Wealth Gap.” On page ten, this statement is written: “The median white single parent has 2.2 times more wealth than the median black two-parent household and 1.9 times more wealth than themedian Latino two-parent household.”
Payscale did a two-year study from 2017 to 2019, and this is their conclusion: “We find equal pay for equal work is still not a reality.” They studied the earnings of white men and men of color using data from 1.8 million employees. They found that no matter how far they advanced, black men made less than white men with the same qualifications.
According to the study, “black men were the only racial/ethnic groupnot achieving pay parity with white men at some level.” The study showed that black men had the most significant “uncontrolled pay gap” relative to white men and that on average, black men earned eighty-seven cents for every dollar a white man earned. The Payscale study showed that black men are paid less compared to all other men. Even when black and white men had the same job, experience, education, and worked in the same geographic location, the study shows a controlled pay gap whereby black men earned less. Executive-level black men still earn less than white men at that same level. At that level, black men are paid ninety-seven cents for every dollar a white man is paid but face the same executive responsibilities and are expected to produce the same or superior results.
The “conservative” judgment of the single parent, unwed mother,and fatherless home because of irresponsible black men has problems. The National Women’s Law Center also showed that black women are paid less than other women. Black women are paid sixty-three cents for every dollar paid to white men based on calculations used in the study. Where this impacts black single mothers is this study shows a pay difference of over 20,000 dollars per year.
“Black women have to work more than 19 months—until the very last dayof July—to make as much as white, non-Hispanic men did in the previous 12-month calendar year.” Black women in high-wage occupations earn sixty-four cents for every dollar a white man earns. On average, that is 40,000 dollars per year less than white men in those same occupations. This renders the unwed mother, fatherless home opinion meritless relative to income and poverty because a black couple can get married, daddy lives at home, and the family still makes less than whites. This is not about lack of education. Nor is it about the field of study.
“Even after completing undergraduate and graduate degrees,black and Hispanic workers earned less than non-Hispanic white workers with the same, or often less, education.”
- Roy Eduardo Kokoyachuk, ThinkNow Research
Kokoyachuck found that blacks and Hispanics with college degrees were paid less than whites and Asians with comparable education. His study showed that blacks and Hispanics who graduated in S.T.E.M majors earned less than whites and Asians with degrees in those same majors.
“Even when Blacks and Hispanics go the extra mile and earn professional degrees, their incomes still don’t break six figures. Whites and Asians, however, double their incomes by earning professional degrees, allowing them to makewell over $100,000 a year.”
- Roy Eduardo Kokoyachuk, ThinkNow Research
So, let’s review. In low-wage paying occupations, Black men are paid 87 cents for every dollar a white man makes, and black women sixty-three cents. In high-paying occupations, black men earn ninety-seven cents for every dollar a white man makes, and black women 64 cents. A black married couple will earn less than a white couple even when all other factors are the same.
So, a black man sitting on a recliner in the living room is not the solution to problems in black communities. The root cause of the problems blacks face has been and continues to be, white racism.