FOR MANY AMERICANS, the American dream means a vast middle class, a society in which the basic necessities of food, shelter, and education are available to all - with enough left over for a comfortable life. Certainly Martin Luther King's vision of equality and integration was not confined to overturning the segregation laws. Indeed, breaking through the barrier of segregation was seen as a means to the end of providing African Americans with an equal opportunity to join the middle class and beyond.
YET THE MIDDLE-CLASS DREAM continues disproportionately to elude minority families. For example, 1999 Current Population Survey data shows that 27% of white families -- yet only 9% of Hispanic families -- reported earnings of $50,000 or more. Half of African Americans in married-couple families had incomes of $50,000 or more, according to 2000 Current Population Survey data, compared to 61% of white married-couple families.
AND WHILE the 1999 median family income for all white families was $42,500 (up from $36,900 in 1991), that for African American families was only $27,900 (up from $21,400), $30,700 for Hispanic families (up from $23,400), and $30,800 for American Indians and Native Alaskans.
MOREOVER, MINORITIES DO NOT APPEAR to receive the same return from their investment in education compared to their white counterparts. For example, according to 1999 Current Population Survey data, white workers 18 years and older with a high school degree and working full-time earned a median income of $26,800, while those with a college degree earned $48,800. Meanwhile, their black counterparts with a high school degree earned only $22,900, and those with a college degree $38,600. Latino high school graduates working full-time reported a median income of $21,500 and college graduates $39,300. Asian and Pacific Islanders reported a median income of $22,600 for those with a high school diploma, and $40,500 for those with an undergraduate degree.
EVEN IN TIMES OF DECLINING POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT, minorities remain disproportionately likely to be poor and/or unemployed. For example, 1999 Current Population Survey data concluded that 32.3 million Americans were poor, for a national poverty rate of 11.8% -- the lowest level since 1979. Yet the African American poverty rate was 23.6 percent (down from 31.9% in 1990); Native Americans had a 25.9 percent rate (down from 30.9%), Latinos were poor at a rate of 22.8% (down from 28.1%), while Asians and Pacific Islanders had a 10.7% poverty rate (down from 12.2% in 1990). Just under eight percent of whites -- 7.7% -- were below the poverty line, down from a 10.7% rate in 1990. (In 1999, the poverty line was set at $17,029.)
SIMILARLY, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the March 2001 unemployment rate was 4.3 percent. But for African Americans, it was 8.6 percent and for Latinos 6.3%, while the rate for white Americans was 3.7 percent.
MINORITY CHLDREN are also disproportionately likely to be poor: one-third of both African American and Hispanic children in America are poor, compared to 13.5% of white kids, and 11.8% of Asian Americans. Latino and African American children are also disproportionately likely to lack health insurance -- according to 1999 Current Population Survey data, one out of every four Latino children and one out of every six African American kids are uninsured, compared to one out of every of 11 white children. Similarly, Latino married-couple families were more than four times as likely to be living in poverty as their white counterparts - 14% of Latino married-couple families were below the poverty line in 1999, compared to only 3% of white families.
