For every dollar a white man earns a black woman earns 68 cents. This is worse than White women (81 cents), Black men (75 cents), Asian men (119 cents) and Asian women (92 cents). While by itself this fact is alarming it still doesn't explain the wealth disparities between black women and other racial-gender groups. For example black women out earn hispanic women (112 cents to the dollar) however, hispanic households have a higher net worth ($7683) than black households($6349). It's a lot more under the surface than just earnings and I'd try my best to summarize the reasons for the frequently discussed 'wealth gap'.
1.) Black women are having too many babies- Not only are black women having more babies than others but more than 60% of these babies live in a single-parent household (usually just with black women) or without parents compared to 27% of white babies. The average child born in 2013 to the age of 18,will cost just over $245000, therefore having more children equals more expenses , having more children without extra financial support equals additional pressure, all that expenses is just terrible for net worth , its a no wonder the median net worth for single black women is said to be just $5.
2.) Black women own too little- 51% of the average black person's asset is outside of their primary residence compared to 72% of white. Similarly, black women are 35 percent less likely than whites of
similar means to invest in the stock market. In fact for every $1 a
black household has in equity a white household has $25. Whether it is
investments, real estate or savings account you can trust black women to
have the smallest portion across all racial-gender groups.
3.) Black women are buying everything on credit- Regardless of the fact that blacks continue to carry more debt relative to their household assets
than do whites: 34.5% of average assets, versus 14.5% for white
households. What's even more disturbing is that blacks are having more than twice the proportion of their entire debt on credit cards in comparison to whites. How about you save some money and leave that Louis Vuitton handbag off your credit card.
4) Black women are religious- There is nothing wrong with being religious, however this does affect your wealth as there are certain traits related to theism, including having a higher altruistic values than others. Black women ,in general, give a much higher percentage of their earnings in church donations, tithes, helping others than other groups of people.
5) Black women are non-married- I don't like to think of this as quite significant as a high proportion of married blacks women (28%) still have a net worth of zero and below . But when you are the 46% of single, divorced and widowed black women with a net worth below zero you begin appreciate the difference a legal significant other could make.
6) Black women are high-spenders- Black people spent $507 billion on hair care and personal grooming items, this is more than nine times the average US customer. The type of hair black women have doesn't seem to have an effect anyway if there aren't overspending on a weave, they are spending on relaxers and multiple natural hair products. In other departments outside of haircare, such as media, fashion ,etc black women tend to be spending more money and the amount is only going higher up ,over the years, while median net worth is going down.
7) Black women are discriminated- This is not just about jobs, education and opportunities. Surely, the more of those you have (though with varying impact across all groups) chances are the higher your net worth would be ,but if you developed poorer spending habits, take on much more loans and debts, your total wealth would be worse off.
So what do you think ? Are the true reasons a lot more complex than stated ? Are there more issues that should have been touched on e.g. white flight, mortgage discrimination, obesity and other health issues in black women?
More on this here :http://michronicleonline.com/2014/10/01/wages-up-for-black-men-down-for-black-women
I agree with your points; however, I do believe black women have, in fact, generally conditioned themselves to such low level of living. Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is, by all means, everyone's entitlement, but when one is in a mental entanglement, it's rather more arduous than anything. So, the root of the problem lies with black women themselves. If they can extricate themselves off of their own self-entanglement, half of this list would definitely be dissipated!
ReplyDelete