You're quoting wikipedia for unskewed statistics? Okay, let's play this game.
According to wikipedia, there were 194,552,774 white people in America as of 2000, times 8.2% = 15,953,327. In 2000, there were 33,947,837 black people in America, times 24.7% = 8,385,115. There were
twice as many white people living under poverty demographics in America than black people.
Furthermore, unless you have something to back up your statements with, I doubt that blacks and whites are growing in similar proportion in class distribution.
While the income of black homes is rising, that hardly means that their 'class' is really changing. In 2001, only 10% of blacks had any shares in the stock market, only 69% had a retirement plan, and that retirement plan was on average only worth about $12,000. Compare that to the white average retirement plan of $65,000.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_in_the_United_States#cite_note-TCOW-4
Blacks receive less in wages compared to whites, even with the same level of education. The average income of a white male with only a high school degree was around $34,000 in 2006. A black male with only a high school education had an average income of around $25,000. The average income of a white male with a masters degree was around $68,000 in 2006. Black males with masters averaged around $52,500 in the same year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_United_States
There is obvious income disparity between whites and blacks of the same education level. This should be evident enough that in some way, shape, or form, being a white male is advantageous over being a black male.
These numbers are not taking something very important into consideration - the statistics for the white people who live in the same areas as the majority of black people. The vast majority of the black population in America is in the South, where
everyone earns 10 to 25% less than the rest of the nation. Our costs of living are much lower than the rest of the country. If you take a look at these figures for white people in these areas, you'll find that these numbers are not at all far off. The problem is when you start adding in areas of the nation where black people are not as common (like Utah for instance) you're skewing the numbers for whether or not earning potentials and other benchmarks are equivolent because you're factoring in an entirely different set of variables that don't apply to the control group.
I can only speak from personal experience on this subject (working as a tutor at a local refugee center, and as an education major), but I wouldn't call this poor schools advantaged in any way. A poor school is still a poor school. Poor schools also don't attract many highly-desired teachers. Just because the school has money doesn't mean the children attending the school have money. Internet access is changing education, and the poor don't have access to it.
Yes, and the poor white, hispanic, native american, and any other 'race' of kids don't have it either. Again, I stand firm by this. We're not dealing with a 'race' issue. We're dealing with a 'class' issue, and this spills over into
all races.
There are more scholarships and grants for blacks because they are underrepresented at the university level. Not only that, but due to unequal distribution of wealth between blacks and whites, private funding is very limited for a number of students.
Hispanics and Native Americans are also underrepresented, but do not have anywhere near the number of scholarships and grants available. Here in Memphis, I saw a black lady who was working at the financial aid office tell my best friend, who is Native American and Hispanic, that there weren't enough Native Americans or Hispanics in Memphis to qualify as a minority, and therefore denied her request for financial aid based on minority status. In other words, the only people getting financial aid for minority status were black people who are in fact 75% of our city's population. If we're going to make legislation based on race as minority status, it has to apply to all minorities, and currently it doesn't. MLK wasn't the champion of black people. He was a champion of all people.
To say that blacks don't value education, don't work as hard, or what ever is a cop out and ignores the statistics. White=power.
To say that an entire 'race' shares anything in common is a ridiculous assumption, and if you jumped to that conclusion from what I wrote, read it again. There is a culture within the 'poor' black community - which means not all black people, nor even all 'poor' black people - that is resistant to education. There is also a culture within the 'poor' white community that is very similar in its resistance to education, but we don't hear about the plight of these people because they are white - they should know better. This is a complete double standard that we pity one group while hold another accountable for doing the exact same thing, which is being poor and uneducated and unable to see the value of education because of it.
If anything quoted above were true, how in the world would we have an emerging black 'middle' class? The real problem here is that the black success stories don't get the media attention that the 'poor' black 'victims of society' get. More and more, black Americans are proving themselves to simply be Americans like all the other Americans. And God bless them! This is exactly what Dr. King fought for - the right to the same opportunities as all the other Americans.
Someone mentioned that MLK would be espousing the sorts of idiotic sentiments on the subject of race that are oversaturating the media today... Nothing could be further from the truth, and quite frankly, as Dr. King is one of my personal heroes, I'm offended. He would be holding the black community accountable for itself, praising the people who've taken advantage of everything he fought for to create prosperity for their families, and condemning those who chose to stay in poverty and not stand for a greater vision. I know this because even in the 1960s, his speeches included these very sentiments, constantly calling for the black community to take a stand and better themselves with every opportunity, to be model citizens, and to show the world what amazing people they can be.
What remains in America is a very clear class issue, and that is something that humanity has dealt with since there was such a thing as social stratification - and it is where we need to be focusing our efforts if we are to truly make positive change in our time. Chasing our tails and bickering over who has it easier is only going to create distance between the groups that are bickering - and for what? A few more dollars here or there? Is it really worth resegragating ourselves so that one group can make 2% more money than another? We live in a day and age where there is no job that anyone of any race cannot hold, be it doctor, corporate mogul, or even President of the United States.
This is an unprecedented time in the history of mankind, and you're not celebrating everything that we've accomplished? You're not celebrating everything that one man who put his life at risk, and lost it, to invoke this change has achieved?
Honestly, you guys are making me sick.