Posted on 09/30/2006 1:10:10 PM PDT by neverdem
Across the country, the income gap between blacks and whites remains wide, and nowhere more so than in Manhattan. But just a river away, a very different story is unfolding.
In Queens, the median income among black households, nearing $52,000 a year, has surpassed that of whites in 2005, an analysis of new census data shows. No other county in the country with a population over 65,000 can make that claim. The gains among blacks in Queens, the city’s quintessential middle-class borough, were driven largely by the growth of two-parent families and the successes of immigrants from the West Indies. Many live in tidy homes in verdant enclaves like Cambria Heights, Rosedale and Laurelton, just west of the Cross Island Parkway and the border with Nassau County.
David Veron, a 45-year-old lawyer, is one of them. He estimates that...
--snip--
Despite the economic progress among blacks in Queens, income gaps still endure within the borough’s black community, where immigrants, mostly from the Caribbean, are generally doing better than American-born blacks.
--snip--
“Racism and the lack of opportunity created a big gap and kind of put us at a deeper disadvantage,” said Steven Dennison, an American-born black resident of Springfield Gardens.
--snip--
“When immigrants come here, they’re not accustomed to social programs,” he said, “and when they see opportunities they had no access to — tuition or academic or practical training — they are God-sent, and they use those programs to build themselves and move forward.”
Immigrants helped propel the gains among blacks. The median income of foreign-born black households was $61,151, compared with $45,864 for American-born blacks. The disparity was even more pronounced among black married couples.
The median for married black immigrants was $84,338, nearly as much as for native-born white couples. For married American-born blacks, it was $70,324.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A clear reason for reparations.
I bet the same can be said about Harlem.
Harlem, way smaller than Queens, has a very different housing stock and much higher density, including lots of public housing.
What will race-hustlers like Sharpton do if the black middle-class continues to increase? Get real jobs? Or, continue to exploit the black underclass?
LI ping
Exactly. Blacks are succeeding?
Uh oh, this is not good news for the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons of the world. What will be their function if a thriving Black middle-class becomes more prevalent?
Why, they won't need the services of Mr. Sharpton and Mr. Jackson any longer.
Harlem today has a weird, weird make-up...
He has a real job as a talking head and candidate for something, no?
Or, continue to exploit the black underclass?
How can Sharpton & Co. stop the BS?
Tenements/trashy apartment buildings/public housing will remain as islands of undesirability, as they do on the Upper West Side.
A lot of the old retail establishments have closed, which is a real loss (please, don't bring up Sylvia's -- the place was always over-rated). Basically Harlem won't be Harlem anymore...
Wait. How is that possible? Wouldn't the racism that keeps American-born blacks behind work the same way on foreign-born blacks? Hmmmm?
(Actually, Thomas Sowell addressed this very thing years ago, in Ethnic America).
That's very true...but NY has *always* seen this kind of transformation...the Jews and the Irish and the Italians all had enclaves that blossomed and faded...why should Harlem's ethnicity be any different?
Work Loaf for the government... city, state or federal.
Everything should stay exactly as it is/was! Chinatown shouldn't have crossed Canal. I should still be able to hear an Irish brogue in the Bronx and get a decent knish in Flatbush!
p.s.
That knish shouldn't cost more than a quarter!
And while I'm at it -- what the hell happened to Nedicks and why can't I get a decent egg cream anymore? The world has gone mad!
In the late 1800s, Harlem was an all white community of middle and upper middle class whites, or varying ethnicities.
It wasn't until the beginnings of the 20th century that blacks moved there and it wasn't until WW II, that Puerto Ricans moved into a part of it.
Harlem has been in the midst of a white influx and a massive gentrification for about a decade or so, now.
Yes, N.Y.C. has ALWAYS been in the midst of some kind of strum&drang, with once VERY fashionable areas turning into slums and slums turning into posh places. It's the natural history of the city!
But did they have to kill off the egg creams?
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