The Minneapolis StarTribune reported today that household income for black families in Minnesota went down dramatically in the last year:
Household income for blacks in Minnesota plummeted in the past year, according to survey data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
From 2013 to 2014, the median income for black households in the state fell 14 percent. In constant dollars, that was a decline from about $31,500 to $27,000 — or $4,500 in a single year.
Meanwhile, the statewide poverty rate for black residents rose from 33 percent to 38 percent, compared to a stable overall state poverty rate of 11 percent.
The median black household in Minnesota is now worse off than its counterpart in Mississippi. Among the 50 states, along with Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., Minnesota ranked 45th in median black household income. Mississippi ranked 44th.
The other racial groups apparently remained stable.
Minneapolis officials say they’ve come up against a new kind of challenge in their fight against late-night crime downtown: people unafraid to fire guns even on blocks packed with bar patrons and dotted with dozens of police officers.
The article only hints at it, but what's going on is black gang violence, and it's getting more and more brazen. I'm not afraid to go to downtown Minneapolis, but as our county attorney notes in the article, it's best to leave before the bars close at 2:00 a.m.
These days linking stories like these immediately opens one up to charges of racism, but if we are going to fix problems we need to be able to face them, not sweep them under that rug. Doing the latter only ensures that both problems will not only continue, they likely will get worse.
The first article notes that there is no clear explanation for the drop, especially considering that the black unemployment rate has remained steady. I don't have an explanation either, but regardless, it's not rocket science to understand that growing poverty and violence feed on each other and are symptoms of a community in crisis. Throw in the fact that at least 40% of black high school students do not graduate on time in Minneapolis and you have all the makings of a growing underclass with little hope for the future.
This is not about the black banker I met with a few months ago, or the black bartender who served me last week, or any other of the majority of black men and women who are leading productive lives. This is about the black underclass and finding ways to reverse its growth. Chanting that, "Black Lives Matter" isn't going to do it. Railing against the 1% and income inequality isn't going to do it. They aren't going to keep kids in school or make at risk young black men and women employable. In fact, those are distractions from finding real solutions.
I'm not even sure how many people care about real solutions. I fear most on the right have given up caring, since talking about the problem is most likely to lead to grief for them personally and little or no recognition of their good will and intent. I think Democrats are either too afraid or guilty, or cynically value the presence of a black underclass as a political weapon, to advance any real solutions. And the media has prioritized political correctness above informing their readers, so these stories sort of rise up in our collective consciousness and then fade away, over and over and over.
I'm pretty sure that we will shy away from uncomfortable truths, there will be more calls for income redistribution, and once again nothing of any substance will be accomplished.
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