Poverty In African American Communities

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Poverty in African American Communities

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Urban Studies

UST 202: The African-American Experience

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July 27, 2021

Abstract

Poverty affects every race, but some more than others. In America, the group affected the

least by poverty is white people, and the group affected the most by poverty is black people. This

can be linked to lingering racism in the American society, since black people often have fewer

job opportunities that also happen to pay less than those for white people, and they generally

have less access to tax-advantaged forms, and higher rates of interest in savings accounts. As a

result of making less money and saving less money, black people will generally have a harder

time becoming homeowners, and suffer with hunger on a daily basis. Poverty rates are higher

among single parent families, predominantly in female-led single parent households. Many of the

other demographics fit inside the African American demographic, as there are many female-led

single parent black households in the United States. With the crossing over of many statistics

here, there are some groups that are especially vulnerable when it comes to establishing food

security and a suitable wage to live off of.

Poverty reaches thousands and thousands of people across the world, but it reaches some

demographics wider than others. This paper will aim to show the balance of population

compared to poverty by racial or ethnic group, the spread of poverty among various racial or

ethnic groups in the Greater Cleveland Area, and the impacts of poverty in African American

communities. When discussing poverty among various groups, it is important to establish the

spread of population in the area in which the poverty is being studied. Approximately one third

of the population of Cuyahoga County is in Cleveland, with the remaining two thirds of the

population living in suburbs. The levels of poverty, as well as percent of the population being

certain races, varies drastically between the city of Cleveland and the suburbs throughout the rest

of Cuyahoga County.

To better understand the spread of people at or under the poverty line for income in the

Greater Cleveland Area, it is important to first get a sense of the various age groups spread

throughout Cuyahoga County. According to Joseph Ahern of The Center for Community

Solutions, in Cuyahoga County approximately 61.5% of the population is between the ages of 18

and 64. This age range is generally the group that would have the highest amount of people

actively working compared to the total number of people in that age range. That number is

slightly higher specifically in Cleveland, with 63.8% of people between the ages of 18 and 64,

and a significantly smaller number of people at or over the age of 65 compared to the number of

people 65 or over living in the Cuyahoga suburbs. This means that the numbers for people

working in Cleveland compared to people working in the suburbs will be of a similar ratio to the

population living in Cleveland compared to the people living in the suburbs. Approximately 33%

of people of working age live in Cleveland, with the remaining 67% living in the suburbs of

Cuyahoga County. Of all the people living in Cuyahoga County, 62.6% of people are white, with

29.6% of people being black and the remainder being several other races. The population of

Cleveland is surprisingly different, however, with 49.6% of residents being black and 39.8% of

residents being white. In cases where the amount of people of a certain race being below the

poverty line being listed as a percentage, this would mean that there are even more people below

the poverty line in that racial group.

Unemployment rates in people ages 16 and over have been decreasing in Cuyahoga

County from the year 2009 to 2018, but they certainly are still rather high. The unemployment

rate in Cuyahoga County as of 2018 is 8.3%, with Cleveland having a staggering 14.7%

unemployment rate in 2018. The Cuyahoga County suburbs were at a low 5.7% unemployment

rate. According to Fred Economic Data, Cuyahoga County saw a rise to over 20%

unemployment rate in the middle of 2020, the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Since then the