On this episode of Broke-ish, Delina and Erika discuss the fake Black Middle Class. But why is it fake? What factors determine if you are in the middle class? Discover all the reasons why today, we’re living under a middle-class illusion.
Homework
| Are you middle class? |
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The Receipts (Show Notes)
The Road to Zero Wealth: How the Racial Wealth Divide is Hollowing Out America’s Middle Class
Authors: Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, Chuck Collins, Josh Hoxie, Emanuel Nieves
Date: September 2017
- Median household wealth for Black families = $1,700
- Median household wealth for white families = $116,000
- The median black family is estimated to have $0 in wealth by the year 2053
Everybody Thinks They’re Middle Class (Bloomberg)
Author: Sam Grobart
Date: September 15, 2016
Why Americans All Believe They Are ‘Middle Class’ (The Atlantic)
Author: Anat Shenker-Osorio
Date: August 1, 2013
The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground (Pew Research Center)
Author: Pew Research Center
Date: December 9, 2015
Are you in the American middle class? Find out with our income calculator (Pew Research Center)
Authors: Richard Fry and Rakesh Kochhar
Date: September 6, 2018
The richest 1 percent now owns more of the country’s wealth than at any time in the past 50 years (The Washington Post)
Author: Christopher Ingraham
Date: December 6, 2017
Defining the middle class: Cash, credentials, or culture? (Brookings Institute)
Authors: Richard V. Reeves, Katherine Guyot and Eleanor Krause
Date: Monday, May 7, 2018
- Cash (what’s in your bank account)
- Credentials (what’s on your resume)
- Culture (what’s inside your head)
African Americans and the New Deal
Unions Helped Build the Black Middle Class. The Wealthy’s Political Lackeys Are Out to Gut It. (Colorlines)
Author: Rashad Robinson
Date: March 2, 2018
Author: Isabel Wilkerson
Date: 2010
How much you have to earn to be considered middle class in every US state (Business Insider)
Author: Libby Kane
Date: April 2, 2015
Which Income Class Are You? (Investopedia)
Author: Jake Frankenfield
Date: October 5, 2018
Against All Odds: The Fight for a Black Middle Class (PBS)
equalpaytoday.org