The Census data also showed that almost 1 in 4 black households lives in poverty. The poverty rate among African Americans (22%) is more than double the poverty rate among whites (9%).
African Americans have the lowest earnings of any racial group by far. While median household income for African Americans was just over $39,000 last year, it was over $47,000 for Latinos, over $65,000 for whites and over $81,000 for Asian American households.
Lower incomes make it harder to get by, let alone get ahead. African Americans are much less likely than whites to own homes or invest in the stock market, in part because low wages leave them with limited extra income to save up for a down payment.
African Americans also are more likely to lack health insurance. The Census released data this week showing that the uninsured rate for the nation overall was 8.8%, an all-time low. But it was 10.5% for African Americans.
Williams Rodgers, chief economist at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, co-wrote a report last year for the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute that found that black-white wage gaps are larger today than they were in 1979.
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