Bob was a Stanford U MBA, Project Manager to top Fortune 50 companies, a tireless supporter of nonprofits, and one of the most optimistic people I've ever met.
In Memoriam, this blog post focuses on the positive advances in the Black community. It is in keeping with Bob Tynes' approach of looking at life's challenges from the perspective of the glass being half full as opposed to negatively looking at them as half empty.
He will be greatly missed by his friends, family and loved ones. RIP. To read more about the life of Bob T and why you should cherish your true friends click here And now checkout...
Discover 7 Amazing Advances of Progress within the Black Community
If you listen to the major media you can't help but think that Blacks are largely a poor ethic group who have little morals or work ethnic, abuse social programs, are prone to criminality, and don't value family. Moreover, Blacks are too often portrayed in popular culture as thuggish, looking for handouts and welfare, and even anti-intellectual.
However there is a less known body of research that gives a much different image of Blacks than is usually seen in the media and popular culture.
Below are some startling little known statistics about advances blacks have made in society. I didn't know many of these facts either until I made the effort to search and find the research. Check them out below...
More Blacks are Business Minded Not Criminally Minded
1. The aggregate income of Blacks in the US is over 1 Trillion dollars. The percentage of Blacks living below the poverty rate is 27.3 % which means 72.7% of blacks now live above the poverty level. 2. There are twice as many Black entrepreneurs as incarcerated Blacks. According to Wikipedia in 2009 there were 841,000 Black men and 64,000 Black women incarcerated (or about 905,800 black men and women incarcerated). The percentage of Black males in prison presently is only a little over 3% of the Black male population. But according to the US census there are over 1.9 million African American businesses or more than double the amount of Blacks incarcerated.
3. Blacks are the fastest growing demographic starting businesses. From 2002 to 2007 Blacks started businesses faster than any other ethnic group 60.5% to 18% on average for other ethnic groups. Source US Census
Furthermore, There are more than 14,507 black businesses with revenues over 1 million dollars (source US Census). Black business receipts is 137.5 - 165 billion dollars (depending on how the source describes ethnicity).
Since 50% of the Black Population is older than 18 or about 21 million people this means about 1.9 million entrepreneurs equals about 8% of the Black adult population has a business. Black businesses hire more about 1 million people. This article shows how only Black business expansion has the potential to hire more Black people check it out.
Also a startling fact is that there are more Black millionaire families than African Americans in jail. Again there are 905,000 Blacks incarcerated but 1.1 Million Black families with a net worth over 1 million dollars! See the 1st video on the bottom of this blog's post for more on Black millionaires. Damn! I didn't know this before!
Did you know that 8% of the millionaires in the United States are Black? I think that's amazing giving our history in the US.
There are 9.63 million millionaires in the US. These are millionaires without counting their real estate holdings.
8% of them are Black (Source Statista). If we do the math that's 770,400 Blacks who are millionaires without even counting people who would be millionaires if you include their real estate holdings.
Blacks Aren't Anti-intellectual
they Take it to School
they Take it to School
4. Check this out. Again there are 905,000 blacks incarcerated mostly for nonviolent offenses. However there are over 4.6 million Blacks with college degrees (Source Blacks in Higher Education) or higher or a ratio of 4.5 to 1 over blacks in prison/jail.
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| Courtesy the Telegraph |
Here is the academic break down of Blacks with college degrees or higher from the authoritarian website Blacks in Higher Education
"The breakdown is as follows: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 3,215,000 blacks in this country who have a bachelor’s degree. And there are an additional 1,078,000 African Americans who have both a four-year college degree and a master’s degree. An additional 150,000 blacks hold a professional degree in fields such as law, business, and medicine. Another 136,000 African Americans have obtained a doctorate. Over-all, 4,579,000 African Americans possess a four-year college degree or higher.
This is breathtaking progress.
In 2008, 19.6 percent of all African Americans over the age of 25 held a college degree. This figure has increased significantly from 13.8 percent in 1996 and 11.3 percent in 1990." (Source Blacks in Higher Education)
There are 82.5% of Blacks have a high school diploma. Black High School dropout rates have decreased to 8% in 2010. Presently there are more Black men enrolled in College's granting bachelor's degrees than in prison (source Black Demographics.com) . 18.5% of Blacks have a bachelors degree or higher which is much higher than the amount of Blacks incarcerated which is about 4%.
5. There are more blacks graduating with computer science degrees than Asians. Here is an article by Dr. Bill Spriggs. He is a highly-respected economist out of Howard University, and former Assistant Secretary of Labor, for the Obama Administration. Here is the background research for his assertions about more Blacks graduating with a degree in computer science than Asians.
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| Dr. Bill Spriggs shows in Research More Blacks Have Computer Science Degrees than Asians |
Remember also that there are 42 to 44 million Blacks in the US (depending on how you classify blacks). Of the 42 million Blacks about 50% are adults over 18. So out of 21 million to 22 million Black adults 4.5 million have college degrees and over 1 million are millionaires. That's almost 20% of the Black "Adult" population has a college degree. That's AMAZING in my view given our history here.
Blacks Aren't Lazy, Unmotivated, or Unpatriotic
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| 45% of Black Families are in the Middle or Upper Middle Class |
6. Blacks are too often portrayed in the major media and popular culture as having little drive to work and are often interested in developing dependency on welfare, public housing, and social programs. However, there are over 18 million blacks working or actively looking for work which is about the same levels with whites percentage wise. Plus there are 9 million Black families in the US and 45% of Black Americans are homeowners for approximately 9,450,000 homeowners. Lastly Blacks have 855,000 people (comprising about 30% of service people) who are members of the armed forces.
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| Colin Powell Represents a long history of Blacks in the Armed Forces |
Real Black Men are Lovingly Involved with their Children
7. According to the CDC Black men are more actively involved in their children's lives than men of other ethnic groups. Check out this article. But Nevertheless...
....When I share this information with even good white liberals and progressives they are floored by these stats. And obviously white conservatives are totally incredulous when told these facts. But to be honest I was surprised to learn these facts myself.
However white conservatives can tell me all the prison and crime stats of African Americans like they have a PhD in criminology. This is because the major media and the dominant culture portrays blacks as thugs and welfare cheats too often.
While there are clearly problems with a significant portion of the Black community, as far as keeping step with society economically and financially, these little known statistics may give a more balanced and nuanced view of the Black community. I hope this info begins to give a more comprehensive view of the aspirations, contributions, and potential of the African American community.
Given the past problems with slavery, Jim Crow, and even current income disparities if you look at our growth economically, politically, and education we've come a long way!
Checkout this videos on the Distortions of the Media on Black People
About the Publisher of Kamau's Qu!ps
Kamau's Qu!ps is Published by Kamau Austin. Kamau is a popular Blogger, Writer, and Internet Marketing Professional helping small businesses grow more profitable businesses online. If you need web design, blogging, search engine or social media promotion contact him at Search Engine Plan
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