From the comments to my post on the racial breakdown of the poor:
There is probably something to be said for visible poverty, however. I imagine african americans are a higher percentage of the urban poor: the group that newspaper columnists and other movers and shakers tend to see.
Posted by: mikem | Jul 19, 2007 3:03:18 PM
As someone noted on another thread, a quick trip through the hills of Arkansas would cure anyone of the delusion that poverty is confined to the African American community.
Posted by: W.B. Reeves | Jul 19, 2007 3:09:05 PM
Well put. Part of why poverty became synonymous with "African-America" was that, in the eyes of those who wrote about these things, it was largely confined to the black, and in some cases, Hispanic, community. It's worth often repeating that the degree to which our national discourse is directed and controlled by a few classes of professionals living in one of three mega-cities leads to major blind spots and distortions of fact.
