African American
In reply to the discussion: *AA GROUP* Ever notice how, in the discussions re: the "1%" vs. the "99%" [View all]Recursion
(56,582 posts)I paid for Matlab; I might as well use it.
Here's the poorest three black and white quintiles, over the past half-century.
Similarly, here are male and female median incomes over the same period.
A few things stand out:
1. The narrative of "stagnant wages" seems to mean "white male wages are somewhat stagnated while women's and PoC's wages at least begin to catch up".
2. The second-poorest black quintile is roughly making as much as the poorest white quintile nowadays. They caught up in the 1990s. You know, that "economy that didn't help wages". Ditto the third-poorest black quintile and the second-poorest white quintile -- honestly the extent to which they now match up is kind of eerie.
3. Although the poorest 20% of whites are making more than 40% of African Americans*, they still feel cheated by rising AA incomes, because they're making roughly what they made in 1971 while African Americans are making significantly more than they were in 1971, at all income levels. They look at those wages as "theirs", and want them "back".
3a. When white people talk about wanting stuff "back", nothing good ever comes of that...
* (That's not quite what I mean: someone at the 20th percentile of whites is making more than someone at the 40th percentile of African Americans; this more or less extends all the way down, if you make more than N% of whites you generally make more than 2N% of blacks)