The following data are derived from the Census Bureau’s ACS:
| Group | Median household income |
| Nigerian-American | $80,711 |
| Jamaican-American | $81,400 |
| Indian-American | $151,200 |
| Chinese-American | $101,728 |
| Japanese-American | $94,319 |
| Black | $56,669 |
| White | $74,932 |
We continue to have race problems in the United States but they are not what many seem to assume as the table above rather clearly illustrates. Yes, some people are discriminated against because of the color of their skin or race. Since “black” is inclusive of both native-born black Americans, the descendants of Southern slaves (whom the sociologist Charles Moskas called “Afro-Americans”) and recent black immigrants, the median household income of Afro-Americans must be even lower than the figure reported above.
My take is that two issues dominate. The first is that immigration does not serve Afro-Americans well. Preferences, set-asides, quotas, and other strategies have preferentially aided immigrants rather than Afro-Americans. The second is that culture, i.e. behavior, is more important than race or color.
Let’s put in some numbers. There are about 1.2 million Jamaicans, 450,000 Nigerians, 5 million Indians, 5 million Chinese and 1.6 million Japanese. There are about 48 million total black people or 46.5 million if you eliminate your two immigrant groups. It’s not totally surprising that people who voluntarily left their homeland looking for a better opportunity might be brighter, more motivated group than the general population, especially if a lot of them are already professionals. (Per Carnegie 42% of Indians arrive with a degree.) Also, these are small groups and fairly easily identified.
So I dont see the number of Jamaican/Nigerians enough to really be much of a factor in outcomes of other black people. I am not sure there is much of a point in comparing the highly educated, selective groups of Asians with Americans.
Which leaves whites vs blacks vs hispanics. I dont know at this point how much of this is race vs culture, but I do think that is a false dichotomy. I there are the issues of loss of capital, including human capital. For years minorities were largely not allowed to develop wealth or human capital. I dont know how long it takes to reaccumulate that kind of capital but looking at historical examples it can be a long time. Remember that Appalachia, to use and example, wasn’t always poor, but having become poor they have lost lots of human capital and its taking a long time to reverse.
Still, if I had to choose I would say right now culture may be the larger issue. There are lots of black people now with good jobs and fruitful lives and at least among the ones Ihave known it seems like most of them had two parents who worked and were involved in their lives.
Steve
As I see it, there are three tangled threads.
1. People are individuals, not categories.
2. People are hardwired to THINK in categories. It’s baked into language:
People – a category
Are hardwired – a categorical description
To think – a categorical action
In categories – enough said
3. “Thinking in categories” expands the individual “sense of self” to include “those like me,” which causes people to BEHAVE in categories (MY tribe, MY race, etc) as the personal instinct for self-preservation interacts with expanded self-interest (MY job, MY politics).
And, the entanglement kicker: Since no one ever draws the shifting category lines in quite the same place, endless “us/them” instinctive fights erupt over everything…
…UNLESS an existential outside threat causes people to band together.
Maybe we need for there to be hostile aliens after all.
Happy Thanksgiving to our host, and to each commenter as well.
What the figures demonstrate dispositively is that differences in median income among different groups cannot be viewed through a strictly racial/ethnic prism. Also note that although you start by disagreeing with me after some wandering around you finally agree: it’s culture. IMO it’s the simplest explanation.
Importing more highly capable workers from Nigeria and Jamaica does not cause the number of jobs that require highly capable workers to expand, at least not linearly. That alone renders the strategies that have been used to remediate our racial issues (to, as you put it, “increase human capital”) over the last 50 years ineffectual.
What is needed is to stop mincing words. Being on time, attending school, and basic arithmetic are not “white supremacy”. For one thing they are valued cross-culturally by whites, blacks, and Asians alike. They are cultural traits that must be encouraged.
Shooting each other is a serious cultural issue that has an adverse effect on black people. So is the majority of black kids growing up without both parents in the household, frequently in homes headed by the grandmother.
Thank you, Piercello. And to you and yours.
People of all groups tend to emulate their peers, they share their dress styles, attitudes, habits, opinions . They share their values, beliefs, their slang, their music, they even hold in common their adversaries.
One trait that no group is willing to accept is to embrace is to copy the culture of people that they hate.
I’m stating the obvious to make just this point, groups are who they are, they’re not misunderstood, not children reaching for your hand, for your guidance, your lead.
They generally resent being called disadvantaged or struggling.
They’ll take what you offer that only costs them their pride, but you’ve already taken that so they don’t mind being called your burden.
People need to be poor to learn how to take charge, without consequences nothing is ever going to improve.
People talk about Black hood culture and that’s really true.
Living paycheck to paycheck is cultural too. We copy the people who we live around and we have the same results as they do until we break free from that mentality.