National

Poverty Still Major Affliction for Blacks

Published

10 years ago

May 28, 2015

Congressional Black Caucus Chair G.K. Butterfield said Republicans must help Democrats fight poverty in African-American communities. (Courtesy of PBS)

by Stacy M. Brown
Special to the NNPA from the Washington Informer

Black America is in a state of emergency, and what’s happened in Baltimore, Ferguson, Missouri, and other places isn’t solely about police misconduct, according to members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

The demonstrations and civil unrest are mostly about poverty, unemployment, a lack of opportunity, hopelessness and despair, the organization said. CBC Chair G.K. Butterfield said Democratic proposals to fix these problems stand in stark contrast to the Republican budget, which he considers a recipe for national decline.

Federal government statistics revealed that the median income of African-American households stands at $34,600, or nearly $24,000 less than the median income of white households.

Also, the median net worth of white households is 13 times the level for black households, and blacks are almost three times more likely to live in poverty than white Americans.

Further, at 10.1 percent, the current unemployment rate for black Americans is double the rate for white Americans, and blacks currently face an unemployment rate higher than the national unemployment rate during the peak of the recession.

“In my home state of North Carolina, the unemployment rate for African-Americans is 9.9 percent while the unemployment rate of whites is 3.2 percent,” Butterfield said.

Also, the poverty rate for African-Americans currently stands at 27.5 percent, while its just 12.6 percent for whites.

For District residents, the median household income for African-Americans is $38,300, while it stands at a whopping $115,900 for whites.

“Yes, that’s right; that is a gap of $77,600, and the poverty rate here in the nation’s capital is 27.4 percent for African-Americans compared to 7.6 percent for whites,” Butterfield said.

And while, on the surface, there’s a smaller gender pay gaps within the black community, it’s really not all that rosy, based on an analysis this month by The Philadelphia Tribune.

“The problem is that a smaller black gender wage gap is an advanced indicator of much more serious economic and financial hemorrhaging within the larger black community. Baltimore just snapped the entire nation back into that conversation,” the newspaper wrote.

African-American females, when compared with other populations, are almost level with their male counterparts in average income, but this comes amid significant economic decline for black men, their traditional community partners.

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Oakland Post: Week of July 2- 8, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 2 – 8, 2025

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July 7, 2025

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Trump Set to Sign Largest Cut to Medicaid After a Marathon Protest Speech by Leader Jeffries

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S.

Published

1 week ago

July 3, 2025

Oakland Post

By Lauren Burke

By a vote of 218 to 214, the GOP-controlled U.S. House passed President Trump’s massive budget and spending bill that will add $3.5 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S. With $175 billion allocated in spending for immigration enforcement, the money for more police officers eclipsed the 2026 budget for the U.S. Marines, which is $57 billion. Almost all of the policy focus from the Trump Administration has focused on deporting immigrants of color from Mexico and Haiti.

The vote occurred as members were pressed to complete their work before the arbitrary deadline of the July 4 holiday set by President Trump. It also occurred after Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries took the House floor for over 8 hours in protest. Leader Jeffries broke the record in the U.S. House for the longest floor speech in history on the House floor. The Senate passed the bill days before and was tied at 50-50, with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski saying that, “my hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.” There were no changes made to the Senate bill by the House. A series of overnight phone calls to Republicans voting against, not changes, was what won over enough Republicans to pass the legislation, even though it adds trillions to the debt. The Trump spending bill also cuts money to Pell grants.

“The Big Ugly Bill steals food out of the hands of starving children, steals medicine from the cabinets of cancer patients, and equips ICE with more funding and more weapons of war than the United States Marine Corps. Is there any question of who those agents will be going to war for, or who they will be going to war against? Beyond these sadistic provisions, Republicans just voted nearly unanimously to close urban and rural hospitals, cripple the child tax credit, and to top it all off, add $3.3 trillion to the ticking time bomb that is the federal deficit – all from a party that embarrassingly pretends to stand for fiscal responsibility and lowering costs,” wrote Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) in a statement on July 3.

“The Congressional Budget Office predicts that 17 million people will lose their health insurance, including over 322,000 Virginians. It will make college less affordable. Three million people will lose access to food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). And up to 16 million students could lose access to free school meals. The Republican bill does all of this to fund tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations,” wrote Education and Workforce Committee ranking member Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) in a statement. The bill’s passage has prompted Democrats to start thinking about 2026 and the next election cycle. With the margins of victory in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate being so narrow, many are convinced that the balance of power and the question of millions being able to enjoy health care come down to only several thousand votes in congressional elections. But currently, Republicans controlled by the MAGA movement control all three branches of government. That reality was never made more stark and more clear than the last seven days of activity in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.