African American community as far as the 1960s has maintained a rich tradition of philanthropy due to the challenges the community faced in the past decades. The resources that contributed to the philanthropic activities include the mutual aid organizations, churches, major political organizations and the government itself. All these organizations and their efforts aimed at humanitarian aid, institutional development and commercial enterprise for the African American communities. The efforts had been towards "social change from the abolition of slavery to the elimination of all legal, educational, and economic barriers to racial equality." (Ball 2003) The road to the development of the African American men, community, business, industry, business affairs and political environment strived with hurdles from all sides.
[...] Source: US Census Bureau One notes that when compared to other races African American and white American incomes have remained relatively stagnant in the past four years (see table). In fact the income has increased for the black though negligible as compared to the white population. According to the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer Finance (SCF) there is a "striking pattern of growth in family income and net worth between 1998 and 2001. Inflation adjusted incomes of families rose broadly, although growth was fastest among the group of families whose income was higher than the median." Yet poverty among whites in 2003 has been 8.2 percent while for blacks the rate shows 24.4 percent. [...]
[...] With this change in the business and economic environment the African American community was bound to be affected in other dimensions such as employment, income and education etc. Employment and income Overall the median household income for most race groups between 2002 and 2003 remained unchanged according to the US Bureau of Census. However the African American household had one of the lowest median incomes of about $30,000 for the year 2003. Compared to the non-Hispanic white household of $48,000 and Asian $ 55,000 the black household is still economically backward (DeNavas-Walt, Proctor and Mills 2004). [...]
[...] Anderson (2000) who has written about economic growth of African American community writes: "Economic policy played a critical role in the course of our economic performance which affected the economic progress of African- Americans. In the 1970s and early '80s, economic discussions were focused on stagflation-double-digit inflation-high unemployment and slow productivity growth. It was suggested by some that the American economy was incapable of yielding high levels of employment without inflation." Waiting for the natural rate of unemployment for stabilizing employment through conventional method would not be feasible as the African American community has been subjected to great adverse conditions and needs time for it to catch up with the global economic progress struggle. [...]
[...] This period also revealed that the government policies were important for achieving such goals in black economic growth. The 1970s encompassed a large proportion of black owned enterprise concentrated in retail, service and businesses that serve exclusively to black consumers. The federal government also made efforts in giving assistance to black enterprises in penetrating the white consumer markets. Backed by the government departments such as the US Department of Commerce the black business organizations flourished and established procedures for securing its consumers as well as suppliers known as set-aside programs. [...]
[...] Social Capital and Cyberpower in the African American Community: A Case Study of a Community Technology Center in the Dual City. Alliance Community Technology, available online at: http://www.communitytechnology.org/cyberpower/#fn11 Ball, EL (2000). "African American Philanthropy" candidate in History, GC, CUNY, Accessed from: http://www.philanthropy.org/publications/online_publications.html Boston, T. D. (March 1997). Black Businesses Can Make a Difference: Minority Firms Must Take the Lead to Lower African American Unemployment. Black Enterprise. Volume: 27. Issue: 8. pp Collins, S. (April 1983). The Making of the Black Middle Class, Social Problems 30 pp. [...]
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