African Americans' Income Going Doooowwwwnnn

This is NOT a good trend, especially when cost of living is rising sharply almost daily. Not that we can expect Mr. Bush's lackies to address this (except in private, to wink and snort and pat themselves on the back - I wish I were being unkind, but it's true).

African-Americans' share of U.S. national income has narrowed in recent years as a weak job market helped unwind earlier strides, according to a report published on Wednesday.

A black family's median income was 62 percent of the earnings of their white counterparts, down from 63.5 percent in 2000, the Economic Policy Institute said.

"The racial gap widened by 2004 as a result of the recession and the jobless recovery that followed," said Jared Bernstein, economist at the Washington think-tank.

Unemployment helped erase the progress that had been made since 1995, when the level was closer to 61 percent. Had the jobless rate remained at 4 percent, as it was in 2000, the share of black incomes would have risen to 63.9 percent of whites'.

"That 1.9 percentage point difference translates to an income loss for the typical black family of over $1,000 in 2004 alone," the report said.

And before you point out to me that incomes across the board, except for the country's RICHEST Americans (amazing how that works in Bush's America), are down, yes you are correct. However, blacks had a smaller share of the pie to start with so income loss there becomes even more significant.

Nods to Attaturk for the link.