Yenny Dominguez.
Census Assignment
Census Data
For this table, I was looking at the levels of household income and poverty levels among three racial categories which consisted of the following; Blacks/African Americans (non-Hispanics), Whites (non-Hispanics) and Hispanics. In terms of geographic it consists of four categories; Salem MA, Lawrence MA, Massachusetts and United States. First let’s focus on Hispanics living in Salem which was my assigned city, the level of their household income was the lower with only 31,172, compared to that of whites with 45, 823 and blacks with 40,882.We can also predict by looking at the chart that the level of poverty for Hispanics is going to be much higher in Salem compared to the other two groups. In terms of poverty, Hispanic poverty rate in Salem consist of 21.8%. This is very high, comparing that the poverty rate for whites living in Salem is only 3.7% and for Blacks 12.8%.
On the other hand, when comparing Salem, MA with Lawrence, MA the income household as well as the percent of poverty is less high in Salem compared to Lawrence. The median household income for Hispanics in Lawrence was 24,873 and their percent of poverty rate was 29.1%. We can observe that in Lawrence more Hispanics are in poverty compared to that of Salem. What I observed in the chart was that the poverty rate for all three groups in Lawrence represents the highest poverty level. In which it seems that those that live in Lawrence regarding their race are more likely to live in poverty than in Salem. Even for whites which scored the lowest in poverty rate, those living in Lawrence have the highest level of poverty with a rate of 9.0% compare to whites living in Salem with only 3.7%. In terms of states Lawrence is the one with the most disadvantages because it shows greater poverty level among all races and it shows lower household income among the three races except for Blacks in which in comparison with Salem, black household income in Lawrence was 45,375 much higher than in Salem with just 40,882. This is the only category in which Lawrence level of income score higher.
When looking at the median household income nationwide we can observe that in the United States Blacks had the lowest median income household with only 29,445, followed by Hispanics with 33,676 and whites with 45,367. Nationwide the rate of poverty among Black and Hispanics is somewhat similar, Hispanics rating 20.0% and Blacks 21.6%, whereas white poverty ration nationwide was only 5.5%. On the other hand, in Massachusetts as a whole Hispanics have the lower median income with 27,300, followed by Black with 34,742 and whites with only 53,031. In terms of poverty rate in Massachusetts as a whole Hispanics are at the top with a poverty rate of 28.5%, followed by Blacks with 17.3% and whites with 4.1%. When looking at MA as a whole we can observe that Blacks have less poverty rate and more median income compared to Hispanics.
At the end, Something that impact me the most was the level of poverty that Lawrence have, I knew that it was a city of immigrants and that it have high levels of poverty but I never expected it to be that high. This chart show me in more details how those disparities are measured and now I see in more details the big gap that existed and still exist within Hispanics compared to whites. In which your race dictated how your living conditions are going to be like. We live in a capitalist world and class division is going to exist but I think that the poor should have even the basic in this country which is the chance to progress and the chance to a better living condition not only by words but by actions.
The system in which we lived in created those disparities gap and still oppressed minorities by subordinating them and placing them in areas where there is less chance to progress. In the United States we lived with this idea that the opportunities are there we just need to search for it, but that is not true. No everyone is going to have the same opportunities, this is why there are still privileges among certain groups and among certain class, in order to subordinate more those that we think are “inferior”. I know that this problem can be fixed by training minorities in more jobs that pay more and by education. But education is not the only remedy because what is the point of having an education when the opportunities in a very competitive society are not going to be the same? This is why I think that we should first focus more on giving more opportunities for minorities to progress not only by letting them have better jobs, education but by giving them the opportunity to be the captain of their own future at once.
Census Table
July 14th, 2012 at 5:51 pm
I have not checked in here for a while since I thought it was getting boring, but the last several posts are great quality so I guess I will add you back to my everyday bloglist. You deserve it my friend