Title: The inheritance of black poverty: It’s all about the men
Headings: The inheritance of black poverty: It’s all about the men
The inheritance of black poverty: It’s all about the men
Black men, stuck in poverty: Chetty’s latest
Black and white Americans, on different starting blocks
Almost half of black youths grew up in the bottom quintile
Share of youths ages 14 to 16 with parents in each income quintile
Gender and race gaps in upward mobility
Black men have low earnings mobility
Share of youths from the bottom quintile who remain in the bottom quintile as adults
Black men and women have low family income mobility
Percentage of youths from the bottom quintile who remain in the bottom quintile of family income as adults
Lower marriage rates aren’t hurting black mobility
Simulating marriage does little to improve mobility for black women
Percentage of youths from the bottom quintile who remain in the bottom quintile of simulated family income
Help black men to help black families

Content: A very different picture emerges for black Americans: Black men and women have low family income mobility
Percentage of youths from the bottom quintile who remain in the bottom quintile of family income as adults
Black men White men Black women White women
0%
20% 40% 60%
80%
0% 80%
Black women face a very high risk of being stuck in poverty (62 percent), surpassing even the 50 percent risk faced by black men. For whites, the odds of remaining stuck in poverty remain relatively low, for both men (28 percent) and women (33 percent), when we use a family income measure. The headline finding here is that, among those who grew up poor, black women are the only group showing a marked difference between the risk of being in the bottom quintile of the individual earnings distribution (for each gender), and the risk of being in the bottom quintile of the family income distribution (for the whole age cohort). Whites do well on both counts; black men do poorly on both counts. Black women do reasonably well on the first and very poorly on the second. This result is probably driven by the fact that black women tend to create families with black men who do poorly on both counts and thus bring down the family income results for black women. Lower marriage rates aren’t hurting black mobility
Why? Various explanations could be given.