Why We Associate Being Black With Poverty

I wanted to explore why this is the case in a logical manner

Often when we think of black Americans, the first image that is portrayed is us living in poverty. But it's a distorted image because most of us don't live in these conditions.

I wanted to explore why this is the case in a logical manner.

First, I want to state the focus of this is to discuss the image aspect and not to argue over historical practices or the reasonings for the economic situations of some black Americans. These are discussions for another time.

The easy answer to this question surrounding black imagery is to say the media is the primary driver but I believe there are other reasons why we have these images in mind that make it easy for the media to perpetuate it.

Black Americans are 12.4% of the population with a poverty rate of 21.7% in comparison to the majority race, white Americans are 57.8% of the population with a poverty rate of 9.5%. (Source: Poverty Rate by Race/Ethnicity)

Although the poverty rate for black Americans is disproportionately higher (~8 Million), statistically there are more white Americans living in poverty (~17 million) than black Americans. So, why don't we associate poverty with white Americans? Partly, because of visibility.

60% of black Americans live in 10 states and you can name those states because of the large cities that you would automatically associate black people would live in. New York City, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans, Detroit, etc.

The majority of black Americans live in or around highly-populated urban areas no matter their economic means. They are typically densely populated and depending on the city, the areas with the most poverty are segregated from the wealthier areas of the city.

These urban areas are highly visible due to their population and people of all ethnicities become aware of these poorer areas typically due to their proximity to crime. If the majority population in a high-poverty area is black, then that's the quick assumption people will make.

Coincidentally, these cities are media hubs for their regions and even nationally. CNN is based in Atlanta. Fox News & MSNBC are in New York City. Los Angeles is a major media hub for the West Coast. The poverty they are likely to project is going to be one with a black face.

When someone wants to make an argument of extreme poverty for white Americans, they generally bring up people who live in Appalachia but rarely show you imagery of it. Why? Logically, because there are no media hubs in these areas.

Poverty for white Americans is generally spread out into rural environments where they aren't seen by the people who live in big cities & media apparatuses.

Once when I was a kid, we were homeless but we were offered a temporary room in a trailer in a trailer park in upstate NY.

The vast majority of the trailer park was poor & white but these types of people aren't noticed on a national stage because no one cares about that area. These people are the invisible 9.5% population who are told they are privileged when their lives show otherwise.

Interestingly, the image of white people being wealthy I believe comes from the same situation but for the opposite reasons. Many of these cities feature some of the most expensive places to live in the country and as prices increase for housing, the wealth gap widens.

With the lack of poor white representation in the same urban areas, especially in the form of poor white neighborhoods, the quick association is white equals wealth which glosses over the class privilege to live in these areas regardless of race.

As much as it annoys me that we associate poor with black, I understand it to a degree. If you grew up in Los Angeles, the poor area was probably majority black. It's your frame of reference for poverty whereas my frame of reference for poor is multicultural due to my background.

I am in no way saying this is the only reason but it's a reason that I never hear anyone bring up. Maybe we should consider this moving forward.