African Americans Today
Unfortunately, the anti-discrimination legislation of the past few decades has not yet managed to totally banish racial discrimination in the US. Race riots still occur, for instance the Los Angeles Riots of 1992, the 2001 Cincinnati Riots, the 2005 Toledo Riot, the 2006 Fontana High School Riot, and the 2009 Oakland Riots.
Backyard Beer
Originator: CNN
Still, the situation has changed. Almost half of all black wage earners now belong to the middle class. 82% of blacks over the age of 25 have at least a high school education, and 19% have at least a bachelor’s degree. 27% of blacks 16 years and older work in management, professional and related occupations. 60% of Black Americans say that “Things are getting better for me,” and 54% are optimistic about the future of blacks. More people felt that things had gotten better since the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s than those who thought that there had not been any change for the better.
African American optimism has increased since 2008. Although blacks have suffered the most from the financial crisis in the past year, a poll released in February 2009 reveals that as many as 58% of the African American population believe that their household financial situation will improve in the next year. Taking into consideration that they are experiencing increasing unemployment and massive home foreclosures, this optimism is difficult to understand. Some believe that President Barack Obama, the nation’s first African American president, is the core of the optimism. The fact that a Black American is the most powerful man in the United States seems to fill the country’s minority groups with a sense of hope unprecedented in American history.
- U.S. Census Bureau News
(http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/cb09ff-01.pdf) - http://www.blackamericastudy.com/
- http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/62912.html



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