The widening fiscal gap - affluent African Americans - Illustration

Black Enterprise, Jan, 1992 by Dawn M. Baskerville

Aplethora of data on African-Americans in poverty exist, but few studies track the existence or progress of the growing number of affluent blacks. Census Bureau statistics chart increased economic polarization among blacks throughtout the past decade. Using the accepted annual family income of $50,000 or more as an affluence base, 1989 witnessed nearly one in seven black families (just over 1 million) achieving affluence, compared with one out of 17 (266,000) two decades before.

Like their white counterparts, moneyed blacks are well-educated (32% hold college degrees), homeowners (77%), in prime earning ages (66% are between 35 and 55), married (79%) and suburbanites. However, irrespective of educational attainment or geographic location, average black incomes invariably trail those of whites.