Black Americans: Racial Tolerance by 1992 Flashcards
Economic Status
Progress: 1980-92
Affirmative action entrenched
Proportion of hs students who went straight to college rose from 38.2% to 51.5% (1983-1992)
Average black income rose nearly 20%
Black business rose from a few thousand to 621,000 (1992)
Economic Status
Setbacks: 1980-92
1970-1990 - Roughly 30% black Americans lived in poverty
Twice as likely to be poor
Unemployment twice that of whites - Chicago’s South Side, 2/3 adult black males employed in 1960, 1/3 by 1990
Median income $24,000, $40,100 for white household
Legal Status
Progress: 1980-92
Black Americans well represented in police force
Legal Status
Setbacks: 1980-92
Bernhard Goetz (white man) travelling on subway, confronted by 4 black youths, shot them with revolver (1984)
Trial in 1987, accepted self defense, only 8 months
Disproportionate numbers of black Americans in jail
Of 368 fed judges, majority young white males (Reaganisation)
Political Status
Progress: 1980-92
More black candidates (Jesse Jackson second at Democratic National Convention in Atlanta in 1988)
NAACP lawyers won hundreds of cases
Black Congressmen increased from 45 to 69 (1990-92)
Major cities elected black mayors: Chicago (1988), Philadelphia (1992)
Political Status
Setbacks: 1980-92
Black candidates rarely won statewide elections
Clarence Thomas as second black Supreme Court judge controversial - conservative + opposed affirmative action
Social Status
Progress: 1980-92
1992 - half lived in neighbourhoods more than 50% white, interracial relationships rising
1988 - 43% black schoolchildren attended schools more than 50% white
The Oprah Winfrey Show - number one talk show for two decades
19 of top 50 albums of 1985 from black artists
Social Status
Setbacks: 1980-92
9% lived in overcrowded + impoverished ghettos, life expectancy poor (69 black, 76 white)
Black sporting success argued to confirm white prejudice (natural athletes)
Few black people in sports management
