Well....
...I am going to pretend for a second that this isn’t a really ignorant question coming from an ignorant person, and treat you like you just arrived from another planet.
I only have 4 to 5 years of history in Canada, so I won’t be able to speak much to what the historical social / economic climate here is, though if I am still in the mood later in this post I might try.
Regarding the United States…
There are a several factors, some objective, some subjective, that contribute to the problem of which you speak. For example, you state that people of African decent (“black people”) have been in the U.S. for 400 years. However, it wasn’t until roughly 40 years ago that Blacks were actually legally guaranteed accesses to the same educational and employment opportunities as whites. Until that time period it was perfectly legal to not hire a man because he was Black, perfectly legal to deny a woman access to a university because she was Black, perfectly legal to deny opportunities (such as business loans or mortgages) to families because they were Black. 40 years ago. Mid 60’s. And today, while legal protections exist, they frequently are still of no value. Many, many studies have shown that even when experience and education are equal, whites are still favored over Blacks in hiring practices.
Now I realize you are both young and ignorant, so I will tell you something you might not realize – 40 years isn’t a very long time to overcome an unfair playing field when it applies to an entire race or culture. Some do overcome of course – no doubt many people (LancLad, where are you?) would point to someone like myself and say “See? He can do it. He has a six figure income, has a house in Oakville, drives an expensive SUV. Why can’t they all?” But the true litmus test of equality isn’t how the top 10% percentile do – I am able to succeed because I am relatively smart, and that relative intelligence has proven to be of value to others who thought I could make them more wealthy and in return were willing to make me modestly so. No, the TRUE test of a level playing field is what a society does with it members who are more like you. Clearly mildly educated, clearly of modest aspiration. Those who are ultimately destined to become no more than the working class.
If you are white, opportunity still exists. You don’t face media stereotypes that cloud how others view and treat you prior to having even gotten to know you. Your parents, perhaps also of the same working class stock, were also afforded the opportunity to earn a blue collar living – they weren’t turned away at the door 40 years ago when you were born, so they became janitors, and bus drivers and fire fighters and cops – good paying blue collar jobs which still are primarily staffed by working class HS and vocationally education whites (again, I am primarily speak of the U.S.). When you see this as a young man – that even your dimwitted sorry ass can make something of yourself whenever you decide to quit being a fuck up and actually do something with the space on this planet you take up, it gives you hope. You have a role model, and you go on to follow that role model (perhaps).
Now, if you are Black, barriers exist. Firstly, there is a very good chance that you have no such role model to emulate. Some of that is cultural, and lies within the Black community to correct. However, some of it is that legacy thing I am talking about. My former father in law would be a good example – he grew up in the deep south, was never afford an education beyond the 6th grade, and that education he received was piss poor because Blacks were denied access to the decent schools that whites attended. Instead they were shuttered to schools with no heat, no books, crowded classrooms, etc. My former fatehr-in-law can barely read - despite having a 6th grade education. Despite this, my former father-in-law made his way to the north as a young man, made a VERY modest living pressing clothes in a dry cleaner, saved up enough money doing so to be able to buy that cleaners from the owner (How hard was that? Well, when you press clothes you get paid by the piece, and typically that pay is measured in cents. Just how much do you think they are going to pay a person to press a shirt when it costs 99 cents to get a shirt cleaned and pressed?), and then built that one cleaners into a chain throughout the Chicago area, despite the fact that being a Black man of modest education meant banks weren’t exactly real warm and fuzzy toward him, at least not in the beginning. Now, that legacy became what his daughters followed – one attending Northwestern University (the Harvard of the Midwest many would say), the other graduating the valedictorian (do you have that in Canada? not sure if it is just a U.S. term) of her H.S. class, and then going on to attend the University of Illinois as Chancellors Scholar (I am guessing you don’t know what a University Chancellor is…suffice to say this honor meant she was one of the top students on campus). Oh yeah, and one of them married me (obviously).
Now - a family legacy of middle class has been created…going forward in that family the kids will be expected to do well in school, go to college, make something of themselves. But who showed my father-in-law the way? What would have happened had he not had an INCREDIBLE level of ambition and intestinal fortitude? Do you understand my point here?
Of course not….
Black people are poor because their parents were often poor.
Black people are under educated because their parents never knew that education could or would open doors. And even sometimes when they had education, those doors were still slammed in their face, forcing them to question its value.
Black people often fail to succeed because they are often denied opportunity, be it from banks, or from every day people who assume any Black man not as educated or articulate (or good looking) as myself must be a trouble maker.
It isn’t that it is impossible. It is that it is more difficult. And invariably, across any sample size measured in the millions, you just aren’t going to beat the odds if they are stacked against you. Again, it isn’t that those who represent the best have not done well…the Ken Chenault’s of the world (yes, I know you don’t know who he is – read a book). It is that those who are just average and everyday still face a harder path than anyone else.
Its only been 40 years Baby Milo. Think of it this way – my great grandfather could not read because he was not permitted to. He would have been KILLED had he ever been caught reading a book. My grandfather was very much a poor man who while never a slave, might as well have been. He had no laws to protect him from the unfair practices of sharecropping, and no laws to protect him from out and out blatant discrimination. No way under the sun would he have ever been allowed to educate himself or to succeed in life. My mother knew first hand the discrimination of the 60’s when it came to education and employment. She attended a mediocre high school, dropped out because she needed to work to provide for her family (sisters, brothers), and got as far in her career as you could probably expect a Black woman with a GED and a kid to get. Later, in a different social climate she would go back to school…get an Associate degree…then a Bachelors…then a Masters…then a Ph.D at age 57. But while she was raising me? It was as struggle to make ends meet. Me? She knew enough to send me to private grade school, and I knew enough to get myself admitted to the top public high school in Chicago, but there was no money for college. I sent myself…worked full time while going to school full time while playing football because I kept hoping maybe I’d get a scholarship (never happened). Got my Bachelors, later in life got a Masters. And now my kid goes to one of the most prestigious schools in the city of Toronto. A legacy. But what if my mom and I were just average, everyday, regular people? If I were honest and hard working, but didn’t have anyone to show me how to dress for an interview, or how to behave, and I didn’t have a Master’s degree or mildly higher than average intelligence…what if I were just a regular everyday Joe? Would I stand the same chance of being able to land a nice lower level supervisor / management job as a white guy whose dad had the same type of job when he was a kid? Could I then send my kid to a $1500/month school so that he could have a leg up on the game?
Now, I know you didn’t understand all of this, and I also know someone will counter post some ignorance in response. And some of the things others will say will be true in regards to ownership of systemic issues in the Black community. But again – if you are asking “why” in regards to millions of people, well, in the U.S. the issue is “legacy”.
