Preview

African American Education Sociology

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
Differences in race lead to divergent levels of economic development within the United States. Analysts often try to explain this phenomenon by observing a specific ethnic group's tradition and cultural ideology. Economists expand their analysis on the economic behaviors of African Americans by taking into consideration personal histories and value systems of the group under study. American families measure economic status in terms of income, and factors associated with material security as a whole. These factors may consist of health care, college funds, and retirement plans. However, African American families lag well behind when conceptualizing economic development under these terms. The reason is due to numerous instances of discrimination …show more content…

Education is a vital tool to economic security. However, Melissa Marschall (1997) has found that current policies demonstrate minorities have been denied equal access to education. She has found that assignment systems based on assessments of language deficiencies or other individual needs are used to separate non-whites from whites. According to Jeffrey J. Mondack and Diana C. Mutz (1997), inequitable school financing is equally detrimental to non-white students. Funding for public schools comes from property taxes. They go along to say that predomintly non-white schools tend to be in central inner city school districts which have a smaller property tax …show more content…

It is difficult for a non-white American family to become economically stable in terms of income and security plans. The reason is due to being a minority in a predominately white America. Therefore, non-white American families are less economically developed than white American families because: H1 non-white American families are less likely to participate in elections than white American families. H2 non-white Americans are more likely to be discriminated against in school than white Americans. H3 the more children in a household, the more likely a family will be economically deprived.

Implications and Conclusion: Education, political participation, and the number of children a family has all affect the levels of economic development within the household for white American families. Even though education levels has a stronger affect toward higher levels of income, when the three variables are measured together, they are all highly statistically significant. In non-white American homes, education levels appears to be the key determinant of their economic


You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Chapter 7, Angel and Mudrazija (2014) discusses obstacles between Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks faces in poor retirement income. According to Angel and Mudrazija Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks may face obstable in racial disparties for example lack of educatuon leading to not being able to find a secure job with secure income, low percentage of people receving sponsored pension plans compared to non-Hispanic white (Angel and Mudrazijia, 2014, p. 148). In addition to Hispanics and non-Hispanic black obstacles they face are working in low pay jobs where there are no inadequate. While non-Hispanic whites are more financially prepared for retirement differentiate the Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks because non-Hispanic whites work in…

    • 122 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    One element of the problem of achieving the American Dream in “Unequal Opportunity: Race and Education” by Darling-Hammond talks about non-white children of their education resources, finding the curriculum teacher and not willing to achieve their goals. On the SAT test the non-white people did alright but the white people did well and didn’t have to worried about their scores. In many minorities students are located poor neighborhood and they have worst education because where they live at. “Many schools serving low-income and minority students do not even offer the math and science courses needed for college.”…

    • 137 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    middle class African American parents in pursuing better success because of easy money that can…

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “For the most part, class avoidance of class-laden vocabulary crosses class boundaries” (Mantsios 304). There are measurements in salary, physical appearance, and education to determine class. Mantsios studies showed that 34 percent of America’s wealth is held by the one percent, and almost one of every eight people are living below the poverty line ($19,307 dollars for a family of four in 2004). But it is not getting any better, since it has increased approximately $4,000 since then. One of the biggest reasons people are in poverty is because people cannot afford proper education to become well-sustained. It is all dependent on factors beyond our control. Mantsios compared class backgrounds of a life of a white male, whose father is a manufacturer and an industrialist who was enrolled in a prestigious preparatory school, and a black female, whose father a janitor and mother a waitress who lives in the ghetto. Who do you think has more of an advantage in life? The white male, as a result of opportunity handed to…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    African-Americans and Whites have differing attitudes toward families. Mike’s (Garzon lecture A) family was described as close-knit with family values and commitment mentioned as the highest virtue. He stated that the men had influence in his family structure, despite the stereotype of the absent black father. Even though his father committed suicide, he stated that his grandfather had a strong influence on his life and his brother. Mark’s (Garzon lecture B) response to his family heritage was different in that he grew up in a single-parent household. In addition, his attitude on ethnicity was that ethnic heritage was not of much importance to him. These differences in attitudes occur not only in the family structure, but also affect their…

    • 557 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are gaps between incomes when comparing all racial groups. The group that I chose to study is African Americans. According to our text book, there is a significant gap between the incomes of the Black and White households (Schaefer). In 2009, the median income of Black households was $32,584. This is much lower than that of the White households holding at $54,461. Household incomes for African Americans have been gradually rising and can be seen in the median household income for the year 2013, $41,142, according to the tables provided in MySocLab Social Explorer Map: Income Inequality by Race (). There is also a low possibility of African Americans owning a home because of the lower income, but also due to discriminatory lending practices (Schaefer). Employment is another area that is held lower for African Americans. The unemployment rates have been high since the 1940s. The unemployment rate for Black males aged 16-24was 35 % during the height of the recession; this is very high because the national unemployment rate was this high during the Great depression. The social standings for this group, African American, is also much lower than Whites. There is a 39.2% rate for Black families with two parents and a 49.7% rate for those families that are only maintained by the mother (Schaefer, Figure 8.4). From a political standing, even though Barak Obama has entered and been in the White House, African Americans still have not received an equal share…

    • 872 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Raisin in the Sun

    • 1474 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Younger family is in this financial situation not completely from irresponsibility but also from their incapability to easily excel in the world they live in. their options are minimal being a black family in a world control by white families.…

    • 1474 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Williams, James Herbert. 2000. African-American Family Structure: Are There Differences in Social, Psychological, and Economic Well-Being? Journal of Family Issues, Vol. 21 No. 7, 838 – 857.…

    • 1292 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Poverty in the United States

    • 7172 Words
    • 29 Pages

    Although the United States of America is the envy of the world because of its great resources and advanced technology a great many of its residents live in poverty. In fact, a 12.6% of the population lives below the minimum standards required to maintain adequate health, diet, and shelter (Babbie, 2004). There evidence to suggest that those who live in poverty are also discriminated against in schools,…

    • 7172 Words
    • 29 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    However, to further explain this in a statistical form, we say thus, African American worker’s earnings equal to 73% of white worker’s earnings, on average, and the average monthly social security retirement benefit for African American equals to 85% of the average benefits for white retirees. In addition, there are other features of social security benefit formula that protect the African Americans. For example, the social security benefit formula is focused on the maximum 35yrs of earnings and it castoffs or discards other years. This, however, helps the African Americans a great lot, since they have doubled the unemployment rates as well as experience longer average spells of employments compared to the white individuals. At the other hand, African American men tend to consequently have a higher number of years with no earning compared to the whites, on average.…

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “In 2009, 25.8% blacks and 25.3% of Hispanics were poor, compared to 9.4% of non-Hispanic whites and 12.5% of Asians” (Michigan, 2006). Hispanic or black families regulated by single men or married couples are lower in poverty than families regulated by single women. Children have a higher jeopardy of poverty verse elderly or middle-aged individuals. Poverty is everywhere regardless if it is a large city or small town. Poverty also affects all crowds in different ways and it is frequently determined. Low-quality communities, schools, and smaller amounts of jobs obtainable are usually found in societies that are suffering from poverty.…

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Poverty and Income inequality affects our relationship with other people from a different race. Any conversation of collective class and flexibility would be inadequate without having a discussion of poverty and income inequality. According to Dr. Larry Griffin, a professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: In 2005-06- “13% of white Mississippians were poor (national average is 12%) and 43% of black Mississippians are poor (national average is 33%)”. Although, other estimations of poverty in the US range from 10 percent to 21 percent, depending on one's governmental favoritisms. There are certain causes and effect of poverty and Income inequality. Poverty is an outstandingly complex social occurrence, and making attempts to find…

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Is Racism Dead

    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Focusing on the article “Income, Earnings, and Poverty Data From the 2006 American Community Survey” Bruce H. Webster Jr and Alemayehu Bishaw addresses problems attached to “If racism is really dead?” In summarizing fashion this report talks about three main sections namely household income, earnings of men and women, and poverty mentioned in paragraph 6 on page 1. Bruce H. Webster Jr and Alemayehu Bishaw take an exceptional perception when questioning “if race is dead?” in terms of income and poverty in the world today. This shares an interesting perspective that involves a new turn to our old beliefs on race. This article gives statistics of the income and poverty in different states in the United States of America in 2006.…

    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Class Mobility

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Absolute economic mobility refers to intergenerational mobility in assessing whether children earn more than their parents did (Rank, 95). Relative economic mobility measures whether children have moved up or down on the socio-economic ladder in comparison where they (and their parents) started (Rank, 90). Finally, life course mobility assesses the likelihood of experiencing different levels of affluence during one’s working years and the extent that gains and losses are incurred (Rank, 96). In America, absolute mobility paints an optimistic picture of the state of the American dream, as the vast majority of Americans have higher family incomes than their parents (Urahn, 2). However, evaluating relative mobility reveals that Americans raised at the bottom and top of the family income ladder are likely to remain there as adults (Urahn, 2). This phenomenon is called “stickiness” and reflects that hard work and skill do not guarantee that one can climb the ladder of success (Rank, 92). Finally, appraising life course mobility reflects that there is a substantial likelihood of attaining economic prosperity at some point in one’s life, as 75% of the population exceeds $100,000 in income during their lives (Rank, 100). However, 91% of the same population also experiences substantial ($25,000) declines in income (Rank,…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Broken Family

    • 12927 Words
    • 52 Pages

    Much of the debate about the growing gap between rich and poor in America focuses on the changing job force, the cost of living, and the tax and regulatory structure that hamstrings businesses and employees. But analysis of the social science literature demonstrates that the root cause of poverty and income disparity is linked undeniably to the presence or absence of marriage. Broken families earn less and experience lower levels of educational achievement. Worse, they pass the prospect of meager incomes and family instability on to their children, making the effects intergenerational. A child’s path to achieving a decent income as an adult—and avoiding the poverty trap—is still the traditional one: complete school, get a job, get married, and have children, in that order. Obviously, a stable income cannot be guaranteed; ultimately, children’s own decisions affect their income potential, and dropping out of school, taking drugs, or having children early and outside of marriage could derail their progress at any time. Beyond those decisions, however, studies show that income disparity in America is affected most by the stability of a child’s home environment— primarily, whether that child has married parents or is part of a broken family. Consider: • In 1950, 12 out of every 100 children born entered a broken family; by 1992, 58 out of every 100 children born entered a broken Produced by family. The Domestic Policy Studies…

    • 12927 Words
    • 52 Pages
    Best Essays