12 Ways Black American Misery Continued to Expand, Even Under Obama's Watch

Barack Obama's presidential win in 2008 was hailed by some as ushering in a post-racial age in the U.S. However, recent numbers have shown that Black American progress continued to either halt or decline even under his watch. Despite these facts, a recent Pew survey found that the number of Blacks who think they are better off now than they were five years earlier almost doubled since 2007. Here are 12 ways Black progress has been reversed or halted during Obama's administration. Household Income From 2009 to 2012, median income declined by 3.6 percent for white households to $58,000, but fell 10.9 percent to $33,500 for Black households, according to the latest Census Bureau figures. Chris Harrison wealth gap illustration Wealth The Urban Institute estimates that between 2007 and 2010 Black families lost 31 percent of their wealth. White families, by comparison, lost 11 percent of their wealth. It also reported that the average white family had about $632,000 in wealth, versus $98,000 for Black families. Unemployment Rate The national unemployment rate has dropped to 7 percent, but the jobless rate for Blacks has only recently shown a small improvement since Obama took office, declining from 12.7 percent in 2009 to 11.4 percent as of July 2014. During the aftermath of the Great Recession, the annual unemployment rate peaked at 15.9 percent for Blacks in 2010 and 2011, while Whites peaked at 8.0 percent. Under-Employment Rate According to unpublished data obtained from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics by scholar Dr. Reginald Clark, the rate of under-employment for Blacks has increased from 16 percent in 2009 to 20 percent at the end of 2012. This represents a 25 percent worsening during Obama’s first term in office from 2009 through 2012. On the other hand, during the same period, the rate of under-employment for all other racial groups dropped: White Americans (10 percent to 8 percent), Hispanic Americans (15 percent to 12 percent), Asian Americans (8 percent to 6 percent). Poverty Rate According to the 2012 U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, the poverty rate for all African-Americans in 2012 was 28.1 percent, which is an increase from 25.5 percent in 2005. In fact, the poverty rate increased between 2005 and 2012 for every demographic of African-Americans except those ages 65 and older. Business Assets The Obama administration's record of guaranteeing loans to Black businesses is worse than it was under former President George W. Bush. The Wall Street Journal reported that, “Black borrowers received 1.7% of the $23.09 billion in total SBA (Small Business Administration) loans in 2013. The percentage is down sharply from 8.2% of overall SBA loan volume in fiscal 2008. By number of loans, Black-owned small businesses got 2.3% of the federal agency’s roughly 54,000 loans last year, down from 11% in 2008." Education In 2013, about 20 percent of Blacks between the ages of 25 and 29 had a bachelor’s degree or more, compared to about 40 percent of whites, 58 percent of Asians, and 15 percent of Hispanics, according to data from the Current Population Survey. The gap hasn’t narrowed significantly in recent years. Under the Obama administration, "the black-white gap on test scores threatens to widen after having narrowed steadily over the previous nine years," Paul E. Peterson, professor of government at Harvard University, wrote in The Wall Street Journal. Home Ownership The homeownership rate for African-Americans fell from 50 percent during the housing bubble to 43 percent in 2013, an 18-year low. The rate for whites stopped falling in 2011, settling at about 73 percent, only 3 percentage points below the 2004 number. Health Care Access According to a survey conducted by the Commonwealth Fund from July to September last year, 21 percent of Blacks reported being uninsured. This year, in a similar survey conducted from April to June, that level was effectively unchanged, at 20 percent. Meanwhile, the uninsured rate for whites fell to 12 percent from 16 percent; for Latinos it plummeted to 23 percent from 36 percent. Retirement Savings and Benefits Black families also suffered bigger hits to their retirement savings, the Urban Institute found. Black families’ retirement accounts shrank 35 percent between 2007 and 2010, while white families’ accounts actually gained 9 percent over the same period. Nearly 38 percent of Blacks ages 18-64 had employer-provided pension coverage in 2010, an 8.1 percentage-point erosion since 1979. This is more than double the rate of erosion in pension coverage for whites. Consumer Debt Credit card debt, student loan debt and personal loans are all significantly higher in the African-American community. Student loan debt was the only kind of household debt that continued to rise during the Obama administration, and Blacks are twice as likely to acquire this type of debt than whites. National Income Growth At the same time, as reported by Think Progress, “Corporations have been the overwhelming beneficiaries of Obama’s policies. Over 88 percent of all the dollars obtained between 2009 and 2011, 88 percent of national income growth, went to corporate profits, while just 1 percent went to wages."

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