Striving to remove barriers that prevent us from building Vibrant, Diverse, Inclusive, Accessible Communities!
Two decades ago, most Americans brushed off the idea of a country split into “haves” and “have nots.” Jodie T. Allen and Michael Dimock of the Pew Research Center report that the public now divides evenly on the question, 48 percent to 48 percent, where in 1988 only 26 percent saw a split and 71 percent rejected it. People changed their minds slowly, year by year. That slow turn shows a growing number of people who feel the economic line runs against them.
The feeling has numbers behind it. The portion of Americans who count themselves with the “have nots” doubled from 17 percent in 1988 to 34 percent in 2007, while the share who call themselves “haves” fell from 59 percent to 45 percent. Income tells the same story. The top 1 percent of families doubled their slice of national income, from 8 percent in 1980 to 16 percent in 2004. Between 1988 and 2004, annual income for the middle fifth of families by income rose by just $6,600, while the average for the top 1 percent climbed from $839,100 to $1,259,700.
Race sits near the center of who sees the divide. Black adults are far likelier than white adults to say the country has two economic classes, 67 percent to 45 percent. When Pew Research Center ran its analysis across several factors, race outweighed both income and education in shaping whether people see a divided country. When people judge their own place on the ladder, income counts most and race counts too. Black adults are telling us something about the country they live in, and these numbers ask us to hear it first.
When more and more of us stand outside the gate, the fault lies with the gate, not the crowd. The squeeze reaches well past the bottom of the ladder. Middle income families saw the steepest drop in people calling themselves haves, from 61 percent in 1988 to 43 percent in 2007. Women are likelier than men to place themselves with the have nots, 37 percent to 30 percent, and middle aged adults are now the age group most likely to do so. Our position is that every difference among us, whether disability, race, gender, age, or class, should have a seat in our planning from day one, and that barriers tied to gender, race, and disability stack up for Black women with disabilities and bear down on their financial stability. Disability never appears in this survey, so the numbers say nothing about how People with Disabilities who are Black, female, or middle aged fit this picture.
With 34 percent of Americans now counting themselves with the have nots, we should plan every program, service, and event expecting that money is tight for many of the people who might join us, the middle of the income ladder included. Because Black adults see the divide far more often than white adults do, and women place themselves with the have nots more often than men do, we should give Black adults and women the first word when we gather views on what a program should offer. A program planned that way would put us on the road to Vibrant, Diverse, Inclusive, Accessible Communities for People with Disabilities.
Opening that gate starts with planning alongside the people now standing outside it.
Read the Full Article: A Nation of “Haves” and “Have-Nots”?.
By: Jodie T. Allen and Michael Dimock
