Oliver Marshall

Census Assignment

Source: Census 2000 Summary File 4 (SF 4):  DP 3 – Profile of Selected Economic Characteristics

For this assignment the median household income and the percent of the population below the poverty level for the three racial groups white, Latino, and African American, were gathered for the cities of Boston and Waltham (both in Massachusetts), as well as for the state of Massachusetts and the United States as a whole. The data retrieved is consistent with the general expectations that in all geographic areas whites had the highest levels of median household income and the lowest percent below poverty rate. Latinos had the second highest household income and second lowest poverty rate on the national level, but in all other categories they had the lowest median income and the highest unemployment rate by far.

Looking at the unemployment rates of whites, they remain in the single digits throughout, with Massachusetts being lower than the national rate, and Waltham showing the lowest rate by far, however Boston had the highest rate. This may be because, being a metro area, Boston encapsulates a greater range of incomes among the white community than Waltham, which is a more affluent city in general. Massachusetts has a lower unemployment rate for whites than nationally, but the unemployment rate for Latinos is much higher than the nationally, and for African Americans it is a small shift downwards. This is clearly evidence of disparity between the races. For one reason or another employment in Massachusetts favors white people, perhaps because there is more white collar and research work, which primarily employees more educated people. Massachusetts also has a much smaller Hispanic population than some southern states, perhaps creating a difficult job market for Latinos, especially for those who do not speak English fluently. Boston shows a similar pattern to Massachusetts, with both the Latino and African American unemployment rates being significantly higher than that of Whites. Finally, Waltham has comparatively much lower unemployment rates, continuing the theory that Waltham is an affluent city that has lower unemployment and higher income for all races.

Looking at the median incomes there is a similar pattern, with whites beating Latinos and African-Americans across the chart. The median income increases for whites from national to Massachusetts, and in Waltham the income of all three races is the highest, with the gap between whites and the two other races actually closing. This maintains that Waltham is affluent to a point that it prevents people below a certain income level from residing there.

As a whole the U.S. clearly favors white people, as they beat out the other two races by a large margin in most cases. However, where Latinos had a higher income level than African Americans nationally in Massachusetts it is lower, and where at the national level the Latino rate of unemployment is slightly below that of African Americans in Massachusetts it is significantly higher (almost 50% more). This could be due to the theory presented earlier that due to the relatively smaller Latino community in Massachusetts Latinos are at a significant disadvantage. Not only do they lack a local culturally based social and economic structure, as found in the more prominent Latino communities in southern states, they are also more likely to be at a disadvantage educationally by coming from an ethnic minority, and also in that English may be a second language.

This entry was posted on March 23, 2012 at 2:15 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.