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This series examining the history of black people in the United States isn’t one in which the usual writings focusing on slavery, the civil rights movement, and the present state of black America. Rather, it will put a lens on subject matter that is often unknown and rarely talked about, from how the North benefitted from slavery to the creation of the ghetto to alleged government involvement with the transportation of drugs into the black community. While the story of black people in the US is viewed generally as one of struggle, however it is also one of rebellions and uprisings against unjust conditions. In many ways, it is a story of resistance and hope against seemingly indomitable odds.

Don't miss reading the previous part: "Police militarization remains unreported"

The Clinton Administration

In the ‘80s and ‘90s, a false narrative had emerged which “that there were white people who played by the rules, and then there were people of color — and particularly black people — who were taking from those people in an illegitimate way.” [1] Partially, this narrative developed due to the media which engaged in broadcasting racist stereotypes about black people who relied on welfare. Political scientist Martin Gilens came out with a book in 1999 entitled Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy, in which he “examined the photographs of poor people in Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report over a forty three-year period” and found that “during the period studied (1950–1992) most of the poor people pictured (53 percent) were African Americans, when, in fact, on average only 29 percent of the poor during that entire period were African American.” [2] So what occurred was that a disproportionate amount of black people were being shown on welfare when that wasn’t the case and the effect was that in the minds of the public, welfare became synonymous with black people.

Conservatives would take advantage of this idea in the ‘90s. Republicans had already been calling for welfare ‘reform’ at the state level since the late ‘80s and argued for changes in Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) policies such as “[mandating] that mothers reliant on welfare participate in job programs or undergo job training, and commence or continue with educational programs.” [3] According to these conservatives, current AFDC policy was creating a culture of welfare dependency. Yet this argument was linked into stereotypes that black people were lazy and used welfare as a way to avoid work and that black women had children to increase their welfare benefits.

Consistent with this thinking, the Republicans proposed welfare reform legislation in the form of the 1995 Personal Responsibility Act in the House which “in large part framed the stated rationale and key provisions of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act that President Clinton signed into law in August 1996.” [4] The effects of this policy were horrendous as while many former welfare recipients now entered the workforce, many of them were not working full-time and were earning low wages. According to the Economic Policy Institute most former welfare recipients were “earning between $6.00 and $8.00 per hour, a wage insufficient to enable them to provide for their families. And although the poverty rate has declined overall, it has increased among working families, particularly those headed by single mothers. For those families that were already poor, poverty in the last several years has deepened.” [5] Overall, the effects of the economic boom and welfare shrinkage in the ‘90s were “the continuation of extreme income inequalities and lower but still high poverty rates.” [6]

Under the Clinton administration, NAFTA was also passed which harmed black people. The Economic Policy Institute did a study in 1997 which found that “Between 1993 and 1996, women lost 141,454 jobs to NAFTA, blacks lost 36,890 jobs, and Hispanics lost 22,520 jobs, numbers closely reflecting these groups’ shares in manufacturing industries.” [7] This loss of jobs also caused an increase in wage gaps, with the gaps between blacks and whites increasing, from $12,645 in 1990 to $14,249 in 2000. [8] A major reason for the increased gaps has to do with job dislocation. Blacks and Latinos are, as the saying goes, ‘last hired, first fired,’ and due to this, it takes them longer to find jobs and as a result, the unemployment rate was much higher in the 1990-2000 period, with black unemployment being three times higher than whites (15.1% versus 4.8% respectively). [9] New economic problems would come to hit black people in the 21st century, problems that have lasting effects and came about as a result of the Great Recession.

The Great Recession

While officially the Great Recession is over, the effects it has had on black people is still continuing to this day.

CBS reported in 2011 that during the Great Recession (2007-2009), “the median net worth for white households had fallen 24 percent to $97,860; the median black net worth had fallen 83 percent to $2,170” and that “Since the end of the recession, the overall unemployment rate has fallen from 9.4 to 9.1 percent, while the black unemployment rate has risen from 14.7 to 16.2 percent, according to the Department of Labor.” [10] So, not only had black net worth fallen at more than three times the rate of white net worth, but it was compounded by the increase in black unemployment. It actually seems that white households have actually gained wealth since the recession as “t wealth of white households was 13 times the median wealth of black households in 2013, compared with eight times the wealth in 2010.” [11]

The pain may very well impact future generations. The American Civil Liberties Union came out with a study which predicted that by 2031 “the typical white household will have 4.5 times more wealth than its black counterpart” and that the “forecasted $98,000 decrease in wealth per black family (versus wealth levels if the Great Recession hadn’t happened) would hamper their ability to secure their children’s future with things like home down payments, college tuition and an inheritance.” [12] The situation looks even bleaker when you factor in that due to the recession, the black middle class lost three decades of wealth and that “homes accounts for about 60 percent of black wealth.” [13] This actually puts the vey economic future of black people at risk as in an age where a college degree is needed and, like always, homes have been a way of adding to and transferring wealth to the next generation, the lack of such assets will drastically decrease the economic power of the black community.

Unfortunately, the pain of the recession is concentrated with black women. Since the recession, “the percentage of black female-headed households in poverty jumped from 43.9 to 47.3 percent” and the net worth of the typical black woman is a mere $100. “Another way to think of this situation is to realize that nearly half of single women of color have zero or negative net worth, meaning their debts equal or exceed their total assets.” [14] Not only do black women have to lead so many households at this time, but they must attempt to do so in increasingly precarious economic conditions.

TV host Tavis Smiley noted in January 2016 that “on every leading economic issue, in the leading economic issues Black Americans have lost ground in every one of those leading categories. So in the last ten years it hasn’t been good for black folk. This is the president’s most loyal constituency that didn’t gain any ground in that period” [15] and unfortunately, he is right. [16]

The economic problems that black people are dealing with are having long-term effects and if history is any indication, the pain will only continue.

Refrences:

[1] Joshua Holland, How Bill Clinton’s Welfare ‘Reform’ Created a System Rife With Racial Biases, BillMoyers.com, http://billmoyers.com/2014/05/12/how-bill-clintons-welfare-reform-created-a-system-rife-with-racial-biases/ (May 12, 2014)

[2] Noel A. Cazenave, Kenneth J. Neubeck, Welfare Racism: Playing The Race Card Against America’s Poor (New York, NY: Routledge, 2001), pg 128

[3] Cazenave, Neubeck, pg 138

[4] Cazenave, Neubeck, pg 143

[5] Heather Boushey, The Effects of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act on Working Families, http://www.epi.org/publication/webfeatures_viewpoints_tanf_testimony/ (March 4, 2002)

[6] Frank Stricker, “Staying Poor in the Clinton Boom: Welfare Reform and the Nearby Labor Force,” Journal of Poverty 7:1 (2003), pg 25

[7] Jesse Rothstein, Robert E. Scott, NAFTA’s Casualties: Employment Effects on Men, Women, and Minorities, Economic Policy Institute, http://www.epi.org/publication/issuebriefs_ib120/ (September 1, 1997)

[8] Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, Lessons from NAFTA: The High Cost of ‘Free Trade,’ http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National_Office_Pubs/lessons_from_nafta.pdf

[9] Ibid

[10] CBS, Whites Recover, But The Black Recession Lingers, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/whites-recover-but-the-black-recession-lingers/ (July 9, 2011)

[11] Richard Fry, Rakesh Kochhar, Wealth Inequality Has Widened Along Racial, Ethnic Lines Since End of Great Recession, Pew Research Center, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/12/12/racial-wealth-gaps-great-recession/ (December 12, 2014)

[12] Kenrya Rakin, Report: Future Generations of Black People Will Feel Great Recession Pain, http://www.colorlines.com/articles/report-future-generations-black-people-will-feel-great-recession-pain (June 23, 2015)

[13] Dawn Turner Trice, “30 Years of US Black Middle Class Economic Gains Have Been Wiped Out,” Business Insider, http://www.businessinsider.com/us-black-middle-class-is-suffering-2012-10 (October 7, 2012)

[14] Marion Johnson, Why America’s Women of Color Have Lost Ground Since The Great Recession, Scholars Strategy Network, http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/brief/why-americas-women-color-have-lost-ground-great-recession (July 2013)

[15] Tom Blumer, “Tavis Smiley’s Reprise: Blacks Have Lost Ground Under Obama ‘On Every Leading Economic Issue,’” Newbusters, http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tom-blumer/2016/01/13/tavis-smileys-reprise-blacks-have-lost-ground-under-obama-every#.7sulpw9:6ysW (January 13, 2016)

[16] Larry Elder, “Under Obama, Blacks Are Worse Off- Far Worse,” Townhall, http://townhall.com/columnists/larryelder/2015/07/23/under-obama-blacks-are-worse-off--far-worse-n2028985/page/full (July 13, 2015)