The Long Overdue Apology To African Americans

Jennifer Wheary is a Senior Fellow at Demos, a public policy organization in New York and co-author of Economic (In)Security: The Experience of the African American and Latino Middle Classes.

In passing a resolution apologizing for slavery and Jim Crow this past week, the House stated what has always been obvious in African-American communities and anyone studying them.

The resolution says that long after slavery and Jim Crow were abolished, their consequences live on "through enormous damage and loss, both tangible and intangible, including the loss of human dignity and liberty, the frustration of careers and professional lives, and the long-term loss of income and opportunity."

Many Americans might not agree that the government needs to apologize and to acknowledge such things. In the days following the resolution, Internet blogs erupted with a wide range of comments.

"Why dredge up the past?" some argued. "It's time for us to move on."

We not only should make a connection between current disparities and past discrimination, we must -- especially in an election year that started out talking about improving economic opportunity and strengthening the middle class.

If we want to pursue the goal of a strong middle class, an awareness of racial differences is step one.

The demographics of the country are shifting dramatically. Between now and 2050, the African-American and Latino populations will grow at a rate that is 18 times that of the white population. Soon enough we will be a majority non-white nation.

By the numbers, African Americans should constitute a large portion of the future middle class. But more than 40 years after the Civil Rights Act and after decades of educational and employment gains, we are far off this course.

African American families -- even those who have successfully pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and made it into the middle class -- still face very serious barriers to financial security.

Middle class financial security requires the education necessary to find a good job and the ability to afford housing and essential living expenses.

It requires having enough financial assets to provide a safety net for troubled times, a nest egg for the future, and a solid starting point for one's children.

It means having adequate health insurance to prevent unforeseen illness from eroding financial stability.

Even after decades of progress, African Americans are still significantly more likely than whites to lack these basics. This disparity is not due to cultural or genetic differences or any of stereotypes that typically plague our thinking about these matters. It is due to decade upon decade of limited access to the structures that support economic opportunity -- to quality education, to funds for college from the GI Bill, to low cost home loans and other forms of credit offered on fair terms.

Even though we have made changes in many of these areas, the long term effects of decades of limited access means not only that African Americans are less likely to move into the middle class. It means that those successful African-American families who should be considered middle class by income or occupation are in a tenuous position at best.

In fact 1 out of 3 African-American middle-income families is actually at high risk of falling out of the middle class altogether.

This is because they lack the assets, income, education, or healthcare they need to ensure financial stability.

Only about 5 percent of African-American middle class families could cover the majority of their essential living expenses for 3 months if their source of income disappeared. Thirty percent lack health insurance. Nearly 7 in 10 live from paycheck to paycheck and have little hope of building up savings after covering their necessities.

The middle class in general has been hit hard by the current economic slowdown, skyrocketing costs of essentials, and housing and healthcare crises. But those in the African-American middle class have been hit harder.

As the road to the middle class becomes impassable, many African Americans may never make it in. And those that fall out may not be able to reverse direction.

Yes, race is an uncomfortable issue in America. But it is one necessary to address.

Left unchecked, existing disparities will not only continue to make the African-American middle class financially weaker and less stable than its white counterpart. They will ensure that any hope of a strong, vibrant and representative middle class -- something that is good for all Americans regardless of race -- is squashed.

Comments

[robXdion]

Wow, they buried this article just like they buried the congressional apology story. You can't move forward by playing "make believe" like nothing ever happened. Most Americans are racked with guilt and shame over the truth of America's past. This is why they the topic is avoided. The moral indignation of blacks has been reduced with shaming tactics of playing the "race card" because it makes whites AND blacks eager for acceptance very uncomfortable. There are few American adults able to acknowledge the past, how it has influenced their own thoughts, words, actions and move forward.