I was frustrated by an online debate this week between a young black man and a black woman. The man argued that it was foolish to continue supporting the Democrat Party because it never does anything for black people. The woman argued that the Republicans do even less and would in fact roll back rights for black people. I was most frustrated with the idea that anyone would expect either political party to center the specific and very particular needs of black people since we remain a relatively small percentage of the population. We need to support the Party that ensures opportunities, public health, and non-discrimination policies that allow us to succeed in spite of our race, not because of it.
Before getting into the personal responsibility aspect of this post, I should define who I’m talking about. The category of who is black has changed and so have the numbers. According to Pew Reseach, the number and diversity of Black people in the country is rising. There are more black immigrants who now comprise 11% of us in 2022 as compared to only 7% in 2000. In addition, Pew expanded the category of Black people from single-race blacks (who alone make up 14.6% of the U.S. population) to include Black Hispanics and multi-racial non-Hispanics. Of the 47.9 million black people in the U.S., 2.9 million are Hispanic, 5.4 million are multi-racial non-Hispanic. Not surprisingly, the percentages of Hispanic blacks and multi-racial blacks are growing rapidly. And it follows that their median age is much younger too. The median age for single-race blacks is 34.9 while black Hispanics is 21 and multi-racial non-Hispanics is a mere 19.5 years.
That said, the windows of opportunity since desegregation, the Civil Rights Act and Affirmative Action have opened in the areas of education, housing, banking, marriage, and employment. There were and remain individual bad actors in every segment of society who exercise covert acts of discrimination based on skin color. The reality is that there may always be individuals who try to circumvent fair treatment, due recognition, acceptance, promotion, and the success of black people. However, we must always exercise our legal recourse and demand fair treatment. When recognized and called out, these individuals usually back off or they end up paying the consequences. We must always call out health care workers, teachers, property appraisers, bankers, and others who treat us unfairly. Many companies and municipalities have paid out enormous legal fees and punitive compensation for the discriminatory behaviors of their employees. Police officers finally face criminal prosecution for the wrongful deaths of citizens they once killed with impunity. This is progress that I would argue the Democrats are largely responsible for.
I would say to young black men and women today that their future success is up to them given the current laws and public policies in place. Black people are no longer restricted to living in poverty-stricken neighborhoods with under-resourced schools and services and greater environmental pollution. In fact, one of the fastest growing black populations is in Utah. The courageous and ambitious will take the opportunity to improve their living conditions, even if that entails moving. However, a majority of black Americans (56%) continue to reside in the South which represent the poorest states in the country, with Texas and Florida having the biggest black populations. The Midwest and Northeast are each home to 17% of blacks and the west, where I live, only has 10% of blacks living here.
There is good news and there are threats on the horizon when it comes to our collective progress. For starters, according to Pew Research, 26.1 percent of black people over age 25 have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher, up from only 14.5% in 2000. Unfortunately, the gap between black female educational attainment and black males has widened since 2000 with a comparison of 28.9% of females attaining degrees compared to only 22.8% of males.
This gap in educational attainment should not be ignored. For one, it means that black males will have fewer life opportunities for high paying jobs and social mobility. Higher education attainment is attached to increased earning capacity, higher level information processing skills, and social status mobility. On this Mother’s Day, I call upon mothers to monitor their son’s whereabouts, associations, and schoolwork. Parents must insist upon the academic achievement of their sons to a higher level to ensure opportunities and avoid exploitation. We must raise our academic expectations for our children to match or exceed the general population. If we continue to raise black boys to believe their opportunities lie only in becoming professional athletes or music moguls, then the school to prison pipeline will only increase. They can pursue a rigorous education while also participating in sports or music. However, without education, their legitimate job prospects are next to none without a trade or formal education if sports or music does not pan out. And for the vast majority of them, it will not!
I contend that it is far easier to adequately monitor kids, especially boys, when there are two parents at home. Unfortunately, many of our black children are being raised by single mothers who struggle to survive and have too few resources and too little time to devote to being an involved parent. It has always been a mistake to expect the government to rescue single moms to the extent that fully nurtures a developing child. And the truth is that it takes a super-woman to provide all the love, attention and educational opportunities a developing child needs to thrive and succeed. In red states where the greatest population of black people live, new abortion restrictions have gone into effect and access to health care is being rolled back. The threat of more black babies being born into poverty to single mothers is a horrifying prospect for our collective future. Education and marriage before babies are essential for our children and our collective future. We should be preaching this from the roof tops. Instead, online conversations feature angry uneducated black men complaining that black women are too independent and money grubbing.
There is definitely something going on in the culture that has affected marriage or the lack of it among black Americans. I suspect that the education and social gap between black men and women likely has some bearing on the fact that only 32% of black adults are married compared to 53% of adults who are not black. Additionally, unemployment, low paying jobs, and extremely high incarceration rates among black men don’t help the prospects for marriage either. And neither does the reputation for infidelity.
Nearly half of black men and women have never been married and of those who have 25% of black women and 15% of black men are divorced, separated or widowed. More black men are married (36%) than black women (29%). Of those, 21% of black men are married to non-black women while 13% of black women are married to non-black men. What I hear from black women is that it is difficult to find worthy partners among black men. Going back to parenting, I’m convinced that it generally takes two involved parents to raise a worthy black man. So, my guess is that more black women will soon be marrying outside their race and the trend of multi-racial babies will continue. Not surprisingly, my daughters are married to white men and my step-daughter is married to a highly educated (PhD) Nigerian immigrant.
It is also not surprising that mixed-race households have the highest median income ($60,000) followed by black Hispanic households ($56,500) while single race households have only $49,500. I attribute this to the likelihood that multi-racial couples meet in higher social circles outside racially segregated neighborhoods, typically in college or on the job. My son met his white pediatrician wife in the Peace Corps after college.
My point is this: for now, laws and policies are in place that allow us to determine our future prospects for success. We must take advantage of the choice to get an education whether that is in the trades or academics no matter our preference for athletics, acting, or music. Higher education is about learning how to process information and gaining social mobility. We can also move out of impoverished, under-resourced, high pollution neighborhoods. And finally, we can expand our marriage prospects beyond black men and women.
I began by saying that we need to support the political party that provides opportunities for success without regard to race. Which Party supports reproductive rights? Which wants to expand access to healthcare? Which Party cares more about clean air and water than corporate profits? Which Party wants everyone to vote? Which Party’s candidate just claimed that discrimination against “whites” is a major problem that must be dealt with?
Pay attention to Biden’s push to forgive student loans. This policy will help young people, many of whom are black men and women who obtained degrees or trades and now find themselves in overwhelming debt. Once free of this debt burden, my sincere hope is that they will be wise enough to save and invest, start businesses, get married, and buy homes. Those who say the Democrats have done nothing for black people are likely stuck in impoverished neighborhoods, are uneducated, and therefore lack the upward mobility a good education can provide.