(Posted by Taylor Media Services) A series of new studies paint a mixed economic picture for American families but one fact emerges fairly clearly: When compared to whites, Black families in America are becoming worse off financially. The most telling figures in a groundbreaking study released last week by Julia Isaacs of the Brookings Institution show that in 1974, the typical Black family earned 63 cents for every dollar earned by the typical white family. However, by 2004, the racial gap in median family income had widened with Blacks now earning only 58 cents for every dollar earned by whites.
Meanwhile, other reports revealed that even when they reach middle class status, Blacks have more difficulty passing their economic achievement on to their children. The studies showed that Black children born to middle class parents in the 1960s were much more likely than whites to have slipped down the economic ladder into poverty. In fact, it appears that 45 percent Black children born to middle class families in the 1960s are now economically worse off than their parents (when inflation is taken into account).
The above findings came from a series of three reports from the Economic Mobility Project of the Pew Charitable Trusts. It also appears that Blacks are suffering financially for failing to marry. The Brookings Institution study suggested that a major reason for Black family poverty is that Blacks are much less likely than whites to get married and single parent headed households tend to be poorer than two-parent households. Currently, for example, an estimated 70 percent of Black children are born out of wedlock compared to just 25 percent of white children.
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