Jack & Jill Politics

The Wikipedia entry for “African-American” is well-written. I wish I knew who has contributed to it. A few highlights that bear notice. Links and citations can be found on the wiki itself.

The nation’s most affluent county with a majority African American population is Prince George’s County, Maryland, with a median income of $62,467. Other affluent African American majority counties include Dekalb County in Georgia, and Charles City County in Virginia. Queens County, New York, which is part of New York City, is the only county with a population of 65,000 or more where African Americans have a higher household income than White Americans.

These areas of the country and their nearby cities of Washington DC, Atlanta and New York are critical centers of the black middle and upper classes. This is where the action is.

But there’s more on our economic status:

Although the unemployment rate among African Americans (in 2002, approximately 11%[19]) has typically been twice the rate among European Americans (approximately 5% in the same year[21]), it is still comparable to rates found in France and Spain,[22] [3], and is slightly higher than the overall rate of the European Union [4]. When compared to populations outside of the United States and European Union, the collective affluence of African Americans is even more striking and disproportionate. Based on worker income alone (excluding purchasing power parity and extra wealth, both of which would accentuate the comparative affluence of African Americans), African Americans produced $586 billion in 2004[5],[6], slightly smaller than the GDP of Brazil in 2006 (even though Brazil’s population is about 5 times the size of the African American one) [7], and approximately 80% the size of Russia’s 2005 GDP (even though Russia’s population is nearly 4 times the size of the African American one [8]. In 2004 this amount would have been ranked as the 15th largest GDP internationally (out of 177 ranked) [9], compared to a population ranking of 33 in 2005[10].

Lazy and shiftless, indeed. Our growing economic power will likely translate to greater political power soon. Smart candidates will understand this and speak to us accordingly — not with condescension but with recognition of our strength. Now that government has gotten out of our way, we’re able to show what we can do. There’s more on the wiki. Check it out.