Sir's blog

             I got the opportunity to use the census as a tool to understand the race relations in a city that was assigned to me. I also got the opportunity to measure income and poverty rates between different races within a city. I then compared this to the income and poverty rates of the City of Boston as well as Massachusetts. We then compare those numbers to the United States as a whole.

                As far as races, it was kind of difficult to compare the income and poverty levels of different races within Ware, Massachusetts with those of the United States and Massachusetts. This is because there is primarily one race in Ware. When trying to compare the income and poverty levels of non whites in Ware, we encounter a problem. There is not enough in numbers to get a true sense of the disparity in income and poverty. When I searched for black income levels a message said that the sample size is not enough, the same for Asians as well as Native Americans. Even when I put in the category of Blacks, Asians, Native Americans and Native Hawaiians (Collectively), there still seems to not be enough of them to make a statistic.

                Ware is a town that is close to the city of Springfield. Boston is the capitol city of Massachusetts and Massachusetts is arguably the most influential state in the New England Region. And finally, New England is in the Northeast region of the United States. Also, for more clarification, The United States is in the Western Hemisphere of the world. All this comes into account when thinking about race relations in terms of income and poverty

          Obviously the most glaring similarity is that there seems not to be many poor African Americans and Asians in Ware. This is simply because there are not many of them in those areas. However comparing Boston to Massachusetts as a whole, the median household income seems to change by the races. Surprisingly Asian households have the highest median income compared to the two other races. Here, White non-Hispanics make a little less than the average Asian household while blacks make the least on average of these three groups. It seems that way across the board in Massachusetts and the United States as a whole.

                However, there are differences in the disparity within spaces. For instance, one may notice that within Boston, Asian households don’t make as much as White households but the numbers are very close. When you look at these numbers compared to the State, Massachusetts as a whole pays more to an Asian household than a white household. Almost 20 thousand dollars more. The US number is dramatic as well. In this country, the average Asian household makes almost 20 percent more than the average white home.

                It should also be noted that although the African American household income is the lowest of the three race groups across the board. Blacks in Boston make more per family household than Blacks in other parts of the United States but blacks in other parts of the state of Massachusetts make more than the average black household in Boston.

                It seems Ware is one of the poorer areas of Massachusetts. The average income for white households in Ware is less than that of Boston, Massachusetts as a whole and even the whole United States. But it should be noted that Boston and Massachusetts have a hire average income per household than the United States as a whole. It is also interesting that out of these three groups, Asians were the only ones who make less in Boston and the State than other Asians in different parts of the country.

                When you look at` the percentage of families living in poverty, it seems that for white non-Hispanic or Latino whites in Ware have a much higher poverty rate than people of similar race in the United States and Boston as a whole and as well as the State of Massachusetts. The state of Massachusetts compared to the nation shows that Massachusetts white residents make more than other states and are in less poverty than similar races in other states.

                The link between income and poverty seems to be the case with African Americans. It seems from this data, no matter where they live, their income seems to have a direct correlation to their chances of poverty. As income goes up, poverty goes down. And at a pretty steady rate as well.

                For the Asiatic, the numbers were quite interesting compared to the other races. Although as stated before that Asians have the highest median income of these three races, they also have the highest poverty rate in the city of Boston. Also, alarmingly so, even though they make more money than whites on average, they are four times more likely to be impoverished. Boston is a good city to analyze race relations between Asians and blacks because they have around the same median income yet their poverty levels are polar opposites.

                It’s even more alarming when you look at the State statistics. Asians again have the highest median income yet they are still 3 times more likely to be impoverished. It should still be noted that the poverty rate for Asians in the state are far lower than the rate for Asians in Boston. One may say that income directly effects this but when you look at the fact that the average US Asian makes less than the average Massachusetts Asian household but is less likely to be impoverished, one can quickly dispel that theory. This also seems to be the case for blacks. Blacks in Massachusetts make about twenty five percent more than the average American yet they have similar poverty rates.

                Some of the things that may affect this data are housing differences as well as differences in wealth rather than income. Also it can be due to spending habits as well although some of these numbers clearly cannot be explained on the individual household level. There are institutions in place that lead to these numbers. If I had another shot at this I would compare how much each household makes by gender and then see if the numbers start explaining themselves. I have a feeling that things such as who is more likely to go to prison (and thus have no income) affect this data.