Study finds median wealth for single black women at $5

[kpete]

Source: Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Study finds median wealth for single black women at $5
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
By Tim Grant, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Women of all races bring home less income and own fewer assets, on average, than men of the same race, but for single black women the disparities are so overwhelmingly great that even in their prime working years their median wealth amounts to only $5.

In a groundbreaking report released Monday by a leading economic research group, social scientists turned a spotlight on the grave financial challenges facing an often overlooked group of women, many of whom could not take an unpaid sick day or repair a major appliance without going into debt.

"It's rather shocking," said Meizhu Lui, director of the Closing the Gap Initiative based in Oakland, Calif., who contributed to the report "Lifting as We Climb: Women of Color, Wealth and America's Future."
PDF
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/pdf/201003/20100309_womenincome.pdf
Racial disparities in net worth

Among the most startling revelations in the wealth data is that while single white women in the prime of their working years (ages 36 to 49) have a median wealth of $42,600 (still only 61 percent of their single white male counterparts), the median wealth for single black women is only $5.




Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10068/1041225-28.stm

[Cal Carpenter]

1. That is just a stunning statistic

Wow.

:(

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Horrifying

[I Have A Dream]

36. +1 nt

[Bigmack]

3. At what point will people revolt? Just askin'.... nt

[awoke_in_2003]

65. When "American Idol"...

and "Dancing with the Stars" are canceled. :(

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. as a black woman I say NO WAY! There is more worth under the average couch cushion

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[goclark]

47. Black women also have been know to support

everyone in the entire family.

I'm surprised with those findings.
As a previous poster mentioned ~ it's the Black women who know how to keep money,they become their own bank. They store their money in couches,bras, books, ice boxes.

It's been my experience that when relatives need money they come to the mother, grandmother,aunt to ask and usually they receive.

I know more black women than black men that have gotten their children, grandchildren, cousins,friends out of jail that I can count on my fingers.

I mean with BIG money and no real steady jobs.

Ms. goclark is different!

When my young cousin called me from jail (20 years ago) to ask me to bail him out, I told him..." That is the vacation you earned for the life that you lead, I'm not giving you a dime!"

He is now enjoying a productive life with a job, wife and two children.

[Liberal_in_LA]

55. Good points. I once read a study that found that a black woman making 50K has much less networth

than a white woman making 50K because the black woman is bailing folks out of jail and supporting the single mother sister. I'm
glad you kept your $$$ in your pocket when you cousin called.

[goclark]

57. Exactly

I am really shocked by that statistic ~ shocked!

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. more from article: Hispanic women household median wealth = $120, black women = $100

WOW

[KingFlorez]

6. Not surprising at all

Black women are one of the groups that still have yet to gaining real footing on social and economic ladder. There has been a lot of progress, but there is a long way to go.

[CLANG]

7. Crap! And I thought I was living paycheck-to-paycheck!

What percentage of people in the US would have their lives collapse if they missed a paycheck or two? Thank you, corporatist fascists!

[Honeycombe8]

8. I guess that means they have a lot of debt? Or they are unemployed?

Not sure I understand.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. yeah, it's not clear if they have cash but high credit card balance

[caseymoz]

25. Probably more like a high payday loan balance.

I don't think credit card companies would target that demographic as much.

[Divine Discontent]

10. gotta be both they you said...

[Gormy Cuss]

11. The study defined wealth as net worth, so debts would offset cash on hand in that calculation. n/t

[slackmaster]

46. Part of it has to be the result of the recent decline in home values

I had negative net worth for a long, long time (because of a divorce, mainly).

[4saken]

17. Children...

The number of children(and when they are had) will also play a huge part(if not the primary part).

[NOLALady]

60. Probably underemployed.

[kestrel91316]

12. A national embarrassment. For the nation, not black women.

[Barack_America]

13. Yes. nt

[Yavin4]

14. This Is Also A Reflection of Pluning Real Estate Values

Most Americans get their wealth from their homes. The Black women who are homeowners have probably seen the value of their homes plummet faster than any other group.

[FirstLight]

15. I may be white, but that statistic feels very real to ME

single mom, domestic violence survivorof 6 years, 3 kids, welfare, food stamps, HUD housing, and a bank acount that goes into overdraft the last week of EVERY month, because I just DON'T have the cushion.

ever had to search for change to buy milk?
or 'borrow' from your kids piggy banks for gas to drive them to school?

ya, that's what it feels like to be "worth" about $5...


not. fun. at.all.

[sandnsea]

28. I thought that was normal life

Hang in there, it is less stressful when they grow up.

[mntleo2]

39. Me too Dear ...

...but I know I have it "better" in that at the very least I am not as discriminated against as women of color are. I am being dry here since any discrimination sucks, except that is what we women laugh about when we get together. And my friends come from every continent in the world.

Still I was wondering about that $42,000 worth as well. Most single women I know of ANY color who are mothers are scrambling. One time I was giving a talk about poverty to some church folks who were saying stuff like we ate at McDonald's because we could not afford to feed our families anything else. I had to tell them, "Look, you need to know something ...my friends and I can't AFFORD to eat at McDonalds. Even the dollar menu is too much for a woman with 2 kids except for a rare treat ..."

They looked at me in surprise. They asked, "Well how DO you feed your family then?" I told them, "We usually become damn great cooks who can serve a filling meal that will tickle your taste buds, nurture your body, fill your belly, and everyone leaves the table satisfied on a meal that costs less than $2.00 a plate. We learn how to imitate resteraunt food if it is a specialty like McChicken nuggets for kids, how to make a kill malt shake with cheap ingredients for a treat, a casserole that would garner the envy of Paula Dean, and how to brew our own mochas that would put Starbucks to shame ~ and for literally 1/10th of the cost. THAT'S how we feed our families ..."

Long silence then ... "Uh, do you have any of those recipes?"

:banghead: :rofl:

Cat in Seattle

[ck4829]

16. Unsettling.

[Mithreal]

41. .

yes

[roguevalley]

18. I could vomit over this news. This is the peak of injustice. They aren't

even an accident away from disaster, they are camping on the street.

[Igel]

50. It's an average.

So that $5 might well represent a fair number with $40k in net worth and many, many more $10k in debt.

[Egalitariat]

19. I don't believe that for a second*

[Bozita]

20. That made me think of Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickled and Dimed." The more she worked, the behinder...

... she got.

[RainDog]

21. this made me start crying

[madville]

22. I can't wait for the day I'm worth $5

If you count all my assets and my debt I'm at about -$60,000, I can't wait for the day I'm worth $5.

[d_r]

26. I realized

I'm a couple hundred grand in the negative.

[Joe Bacon]

44. I know the feeling!

At one point, I was worth -$55,000 from my parents medical debts and funeral bills. 13 years later, I'm now down to -$7,000. I can forget about retiring unless I match six lotto numbers!

[iris27]

64. Yeah, between student loans for a useless liberal arts degree

and with decades to go on a mortgage for a home that keeps dropping in value, I'm at -$120,000. I think I'll host a Zero Net Worth party when I get there!

[Jkid]

23. My god.

That is horrifying.

[Number23]

24. I want so desperately for this to be untrue, but the dual evils of racism and sexism in this country

that black women have to endure prevent me from doing so.

"Black women, in general, were more likely to have participated in the subprime loan crisis with upper-income black women being five times more likely to have received a high-cost mortgage than upper-income white men."

"the cost of living has risen faster than income, and they need to go into debt for basic daily necessities"

"black women are more likely to endure the work and responsibility of raising children on their own"

"the ING Foundation found that black women -- who frequently manage the assets of their households -- financially support friends, family and their houses of worship to a much greater degree than the general population. They also are more likely to be employed in jobs and industries -- such as service occupations -- with lower pay and less access to health insurance."

I know so many struggling sisters. This is absolutely heart-breaking. I am in tears reading this.

[pnwmom]

27. How does their income compare to white women? n/t

[femrap]

29. and prez O stands up for

his own!!!! :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[NOLALady]

61. His own?

As in his own fellow Americans, black and white? Or his own as in only biracial Americans? :shrug:

[femrap]

67. His own.....raised by

single mothers.

[NOLALady]

68. I didn't read his book.

But, I thought his Mother remarried and Barack was raised by his Maternal GrandParents.

[femrap]

70. His mother was divorced

twice so she was a single mother a couple of times. Barack's father left them for schooling in NY while Barack was very young.

After the second marriage and going to Indonesia, Barack did return to Hawaii to live with his grandparents and attend high school.

Obama certainly realizes how difficult it is for a mother to raise children....or maybe he resented being sent back to Hawaii to live with a Grandmother who said she was scared when a Black man approached her.

Who knows how he thinks or feels about his family? He did seem to 'idolize' the father who left given he went in search of him. His father was an alcoholic and died in a DWI accident.

I think Obama is a complicated and conflicted person with lots of emotions buried. But his attempts at bi-partisanship are not helping the American people. And his playing nice with Big Pharma and Big Insure is simply cowardly.

[JI7]

30. Discrimination is the biggest reason for this

[defendandprotect]

34. Discimination = profit for the few .... exploitation is basis of capitalism...

[Igel]

52. Lots of things lead to it.

Some are:

Greater fertility: More kids --> more expenses --> lower savings.

Lower marriage rate: Fewer shared expenses, fewer 2-person income families --> lower savings

-- Put these two together and it's worse, as you have a highly disproportionate number of single-parents kids that are black, so their single black mothers are much worse off. Let's not even get into child support.

Lower average educational achievement: Better job --> higher income --> higher investment. There's a better correlation with factors other than race, so I list this separately. Child birth more often happens at earlier ages, further hurting lower average ed. achievement (unless special provisions are made for the young mother). This continues at college.

-- So, on average, those single black working mothers will be making less per family member.

Segregation in terms of housing. As one person I listened to recently put it, in some areas you don't have the kinds of stores that are often a teen's first job, and using public transportation any job is at least an hour away. This hurts the teenager, even though the problem is ultimately the family's income level.

Discrimination: Feeds, but is far from entirely responsible for, the lower ed. achievement and higher unemployment.

Higher black male unemployment (also because of even lower average ed. achievement) means two-parent
families have lower income --> lower savings, investment. Moreover, absentee fathers are more often to have an excuse for not paying child support. Large overlap with all of the above.

Larger families means whatever wealth is available for being passed down to the next generation is, per child, less.

Some things that are called discrimination aren't necessarily discrimination: For example, some subprime mortgage analyses are misleading--they'll point out that when you control for income level or FICO score blacks were much more likely to receive subprime loans. They overlook other factors that are harder to control for or which, when controlled for, yield lower outrage levels. For instance, assets, i.e., wealth, also help determine creditworthiness. Once you've controlled for more things, there's a lot less discrimination visible. At that point people start to mindlessly argue about whether something that actuarial tables show is meaningful is actually covert racism (which is the argument about assets; by and large, people with more assets make better mortgage holders, but asset distribution isn't race-neutral--the same could be said about income, however, and researchers routinely control for that).

There are probably more. But if you think the above are controversial, you haven't seen anything. Luckily, the "more controversial" factors are increasingly unimportant and eventually become barely distinguishable from statistical noise.

[naaman fletcher]

31. what bad reporting:

Among the most startling revelations in the wealth data is that while single white women in the prime of their working years (ages 36 to 49) have a median wealth of $42,600 (still only 61 percent of their single white male counterparts), the median wealth for single black women is only $5.

Why would you compare people in their prime working years for white people to people in all age ranges for black people? The answer of course is to take what is already a good story, but hype it up through shoddy reporting.

[Igel]

53. Not that bad.

"...single black women the disparities are so overwhelmingly great that even in their prime working years their median wealth amounts to only $5..."

"...single white women in the prime of their working years (ages 36 to 49) have a median wealth of $42,600..."

The writer just tries to avoid redundantly reiterating and repeating multiple times what was already said. ;-)

Not that a lot of it isn't shoddy reporting. I find that final gross comparison to be much less useful in just about every regard than looking into why this comparison is as it is. That tends to be controversial, however.

[Solly Mack]

32. k/r

[defendandprotect]

33. Unemployment rates for AA males is mind-boggling ...

and unbelievable percentage of AA in prison!!

I think it might be as much as 1% of their population --

A few months back, some prominent AA's came together -- I think Rangel was part

of the group and may have been other members of Congress/? -- to make that known.

Just shocking -- outrageous!!

[Lorien]

35. 1% of the total US population is in Prison. 12.3% of AA males between the ages of

20 and 32 are in prison: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/07/us/prison-rates-among-blacks-reach-a-peak-report-finds.html?pagewanted=1 32% of AA males can expect to spend at least some time in jail during their lifetimes.

And Bush and Cheney still roam free. :grr:

[defendandprotect]

48. Thank you -- 1% of all Americans in prison -- 12.3% of African-Americans!!

Agree -- Bush and Cheney should be in jail -

Thanks for the help -- I should have looked that up --


And, of course, this bars so much more of the population from voting!!!

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

71. Where did your 32% come from?

[Lifelong Protester]

37. I thought that was a typo...until I read further

my eyes bother me at night, so I put the monitor image size to 125%. On the home page of DU it looked like the $5 might be missing some zeroes, I really thought, 'wow, this must be an error of the distorted image on my monitor'. Now I see it is an error of our distorted sense of justice and fairness in this country.

[demigoddess]

38. not to take anything away from these facts, but I know several white women who

are relatively in the same boat. No wealth beyond a paycheck or disability check. Barely making the daily requirements. One friend owned her home but kept getting home equity loans to pay for repairs. Bought used cars from 'friends' that turned out to be clunkers. Sold her house to a 'friend' who never paid her.

[Igel]

54. Of course.

Medians are medians. Lots of white women in their prime working years are in the red. Far fewer black women in their prime working years have net worth over $40k.

I'd refer to bell curves and the like but I suspect the distribution is highly skewed and quite possibly bimodal.

[DesertDiamond]

40. This is really. really. really. bad. And yes. This describes many black women who are my friends.

I am wondering, however, how the median wealth of white women can be $41,000 when most of my single white women friends are living hand to mouth.

[JI7]

42. this referred to single white women ages 36-49

the numbers are probably a lot different for those who are younger. i'm also wondering if they are comparing the black women by including black women who are younger than 36.

[BlueIris]

43. Horrible. nt

[BumRushDaShow]

45. Don't forget that many single black women

rent, whether apt. or house, so that means no assets that might come from home ownership. Then all you need is either a car loan and/or credit card debt without any corresponding savings to offset that, and even highly-paid single black women in that age range could easily be considered having such a new worth (this assuming they don't inherit a home from a parent or other family member). And in particular, the younger range of the stated age group might include single, college/grad-school educated Black women who have massive student loans they are trying to pay off, particularly having suffered through a period where grants were few and far between thanks to Raygun, *, and Shrub. Additionally, medical issues, whether to self or family members, is a HUGE issue nationwide and one that disproportionately impacts the Black community, where even high-paid Black women may be struggling to support the medical expenses for an ill parent or relative who is without insurance.

As a sidenote, there are estimated to be about 156,000,000 total women in the U.S. with ~20 million being Black women and ~6 million Asian women. So with the vastly larger numbers of White women (~130,000,000) vs other women, their medians and averages could naturally come out much higher, despite the expected racial disparities.

From the "glass half full/glass half empty" argument, at least based on this, 54 % of Black women have a higher net worth.

[defendandprotect]

49. GOP has always, as well, wanted to disconnect women from their husband's Social Security benefits!!

The rise of the right certainly is destructive to women and children . . .

They love the fetus, tho!!

[Liberal_in_LA]

56. Thanks for mentioning the inheritance factor. Whites have more assets passed from parents.

[druidity33]

59. 156,000,000 total women in the U.S....

your tally neglects Latinas. I suspect there's at least as many hermanas as there are "sisters" out there. That takes the "white woman" count down to 110,000 or so. Native American population too, can't forget them... anyone else?

Not to take away anything from what you've said, because it's mostly indisputable. And i haven't googled anything, it just seemed to me you might have left out a few large groups of women who'd want to be recognized.

:)

[Name removed]

51. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[laughingliberal]

58. Rec. nt

[RedSock]

62. ... and obama is spending $12 billion per month on war

all hail the greatest nation on the face of the earth.

[radhika]

63. Tha $5 Gives Them LOTS of Clout with Congress n/t

[Cherchez la Femme]

66. As John & Yoko said

"Woman is the nigger of the world" (apologies for using the N word, but it's their quote, and it's powerful and correct)

And a double-whammy on any NotW who is non-white -- from America to Africa and everywhere else.



I meant this to be short, but I'm going to go off on a tangent & gonna tell a little story here...

Way long ago I visited the Joseph Smith, Jr. farmhouse in Palmyra (actually Macedon) NY.

This happened to be at the time of the end-run of the ERA (I'm giving my age away here, dammit!) but I lived nearby at the time and one lazy Saturday afternoon, being spiritual and very interested in history, decided to go sight-seeing along those lines.

I signed their register. I didn't realize it was for proselytizing.

Well, guess what?!

The Mormons came a-calling to my home with a present just for me! A personally inscribed hardcover (leather-like, too!) Book of Mormon with my name embossed in real gold leaf right on the front cover! Wow!
They were very nice, polite people I must say. At that day & age they dressed strangely (in my view) in white, pressed dress shirts, black slacks & pocket protectors; they looked more formal than my father who was an exec at IBM, but whatever...

And so they preached to me. At least a couple times a week. If I wasn't home they called me at work.
First they sent two men, perhaps thinking I would take their word more seriously and as holding more authority than mere females. For the longest time they tried hard, or should I say as in the spirit of the book, they strived mightily to convert and baptize me into their fold. But I just couldn't buy it all.
Also, at that time I had pushed my innate, unwanted homosexuality so far back into my closet it was buried as deep and was as inaccessible as Joey Smith's midnight peep-stone treasure-digging, not that I even knew what the LDS Church stance upon it was; so that held no weight upon my belief, disbelief or willingness to listen to their peddling, er, preaching.

These gentlemen's efforts were not working at all so as a last resort they sent um, I believe they called them 'Sisters', not Elders -- but don't quote me on that.
So I asked these very lucid, well-spoken Mormon ladies, as I did the men (who had no good answer, none that I can remember) about why their church was so against the ERA and was fighting so hard socially and politically against it.

These very nice, college educated, women's one-line reply to me, as if it completely answered the entire debate, was "Well, if the ERA passes women and men would have to use the same bathroom!"

That's how much they thought of my intelligence. That is what they thought I would swallow (now be nice!)
---I can find no emoticon to express how I feel here. I don't think there is one.


The LDS Church wasn't completely responsible for permanently killing off the ERA but they were extremely utile in its defeat.
Mind you, this was just a few years (less than 10) since they finally allowed black people in their church.

And here we are, in 2010, with Caucasian women still earning barely over half of what a man earns, and non-white women earning much less.


--just giving some credit here where it is definitely due.

[EFerrari]

69. That was a take off on Zora Neale Hurston's

"Black women are the mules of the world", which is frequently misattributed to Alice Walkeer, iirc.