Socio Cultural Strategic Management & Marketing Initiatives

In this particular category, consideration will be given to socio economic factors that permit individuals to enhance themselves and establish identification in the social order.  Personal consumption and identification is a basic trait of humans and when socio-economic conditions prohibit this from transpiring, the results can be very tragic. Income, education, housing, religion, vehicular transport, and political affiliation are some numerous social indicators that permit individuals to express themselves in an economic system. Observing how people, in general, and various ethnic groups, in particular, are performing in these areas can be an indication of their relevance to a nation and how well a nation is responding to its populace.

Their quality of life through consumption of goods and services and psychosomatic health demonstrates a reward for each and communicates how well they relate to each other.  The United States of America has a capitalistic system of government based on investment and return on investment. Nevertheless, those who legitimately lack capacity to invest should not be compelled to live in abject poverty in a wealthy nation. Each person aspires to live and project symbols of status, power and wealth, but for economically disenfranchised citizens, these factors are elusive. Various cohorts essential for determining quality of life have been examined to ascertain how Black and Brown Americans are surviving.

Income

Pursuant to Census Bureau Current Population Survey, average income for whites was $67,175 in 2011 and in March 2012 for blacks it was $39,760 and $40,007 for Hispanics. Since this period, income for both groups has fluctuated due to economic volatility that gradually impacts this cohort. Median Black household income was 59% of white median household income and Hispanic median household income was 68% of whites in 2011. While income for Blacks has grown significantly, it continues to be substantially lower when compared to Asians and altered due to education, married vs single couples, and female headed households. In each case Blacks and Hispanics income suffer drastically due to lower paying jobs or earning capacity.

One other factor that seriously hampers income to economic minority families is money generated from inheritance or trust accounts established by relatives. Largest investment of a typical Black is owner occupied real estate and upon their demise, it is typically deteriorated or encumbered to such an extent that survivors have little or nothing to inherit.  Business ownership or investment knowledge continues to be foreign to lower income groups, but it can substantially improve their financial posture for future generations. This kind of income disparity between each group adversely impacts quality of life relative to housing, education and employment opportunities.  These factors have a direct impact on poverty for immediate family and future generations.

Wealth

Value assets that consist of cash, real estate stocks, bonds, insurance, debentures and knowledge are key components of this socioeconomic indicator. In 2011, the typical net worth of Caucasians households was $91,405 compared with $6,446 for Black households, and $7,843 for Hispanics according to Pew Research Center Report. This kind of paltry wealth accumulation is both alarming and tragic for each group, but Blacks more so than Hispanics.

Hispanics have a language and educational barrier that may adversely impact their capacity to garner wealth and for Blacks it pertains to repetitive poor economic choices. Blacks have been in America for a longer period and are more attuned to American customs and traditions.  In spite of longevity, Black Americans have been oblivious to grasping  importance of saving, buying land, stocks and bonds and acquiring items that appreciate in value as opposed to vehicles, clothes, jewelry, purses and other personal items that depreciate in value.

More than any other factor, accumulating wealth has been catastrophic for Blacks both educated and non-educated, Christians vs seculars. Their investment portfolio will certainly include an expensive vehicle, but very little if any, beyond a car. They expend a substantial portion of their earnings on frivolous items that have little appreciable value. Black Americans have a tendency to brag about how much they pay for junk while the economic majority brags about how little they pay during their most productive income years. 

Black Americans refuse to buy a little “shack “ or land and pay it off in ten years, but they  have expensive habits for travel and buy elegant vehicles to impress. These kinds of indiscretions and poor economic choices have afflicted each human at some point. However, a concerted effort must be made to minimize this tragic carcinogen for economic betterment of future generations.

Home Ownership

Acquiring a home is the largest investment for a typical Black American family.  In order for this process to reach fruition, buyers must be gainfully employed in a position with sufficient income to meet debt service, save for a down payment, maintain good credit, look for a home to purchase, make offer and counter offers on properties, file taxes, and obtain loan approval for purchase of a home.  The sooner a home is acquired, an individual can commence to accumulate wealth and possibly plan for a family and live out the American dream. Hispanics have a burning desire to acquire a home and they see this as a major accomplishment. They have reservation relative to intricacies of the home buying process and prefer to work with some one that speaks their own language when buying a home. From their perspective, there is no greater accomplishment than owning their own home in America.
   
In 2012, 46% of Hispanics households owned their home in comparison to 73% of white households. 44% of Black households and 57 % of Asian households. In comparison to each ethnic group in this same period, the ownership gap between the two groups has fluctuated significantly over time due to fluctuation in market conditions. Blacks and Hispanics have significantly lower home ownership and this has a significant adverse impact on their net worth.

Blacks and Hispanics have a tendency to acquire properties in majority minority neighborhoods that are often times inundated with low performing schools, high crime, poor city services, and limited commercial, recreational and health care facilities. Inner city neighborhood properties have a tendency to experience a higher degree of deferred maintenance that can be costly to cure. 

These factors, coupled with higher than typical interest rates charged, and low down payments have a negative impact on value and equity position when the property is placed on market to be re-sold. Higher interest rates result in a greater portion of payment being applied towards interest as opposed to principle reduction over the life of the mortgage. Blacks and Hispanics also tend to acquire property later in life than whites and remain in their homes for longer periods of time to allow the filtering process to function.

The typical timeframe for first time buyers to remain in a home is 8-10 years, giving an allowance for economic swings in market. During that time frame, there is typically a change in family income, family structure and neighborhood characteristics. These are the kind of factors that stimulate desire for upward mobility in homeownership and developing wealth through home owner ship simultaneously.

The option to sell an existing home is available but converting that home to investment property can often be challenging. Paradoxical as it may seem, people of color typically do neither because payments are relatively low, they become comfortable in their surroundings, they do not realize the benefit of removing themselves from a wasteful asset, and, upward mobility through home ownership to improve net worth is not on their radar.

Deferred maintenance, high interest rates, and undesirable neighborhoods with modest, if any, appreciation, can cause home ownership for Black and Brown people to be a subliminal curse at the end of a property’s economic life as opposed to an asset. This does little to assist in their net worth because they end up expending some thirty years of earnings on an investment that’s practically worthless.  In most instances, homeowners have no idea they are servicing a debt instrument that has limited value at the end of a thirty-year term.

This is not the intended outcome of home ownership, but in many instances this is a reality for Blacks and Hispanics. This course of events results in each group suffering dramatically in reference to assets and net worth under home owner ship because their home is typically their greatest investment. Residing in a crime and rat infested Neighborhood with poor city services is very bedeviling and heart wrenching and this could be a crystal clear case of residential segregation in a sophisticated format.

Education

Education of children commences at birth and continues into perpetuity. Data has proven that children born to members in the lower economic strata are less educated from inception based upon environment and never recover.  According to a study performed by Anne Ferald, a Stanford Psychologist, children at 18 months from wealthier households could identify more pictures of simple words than children from lower income households. They were able to correlate such words as ball and dog with pictures.

By age 3, children from wealthier households had heard some 30 million more words than children from lower income households and incorporate these words into their basic mode of life... Education is where the economic schism commences transpires and it never ceases. Oral language vocabulary and reading comprehension are interconnected and by the time wealthier children reach school age, they have a distinct advantage over children from lower income households.

This kind of data buttresses necessity for children from low income households to be part of pre-school training to help curtail educational deficiencies. As low income children go further in school and educational short comings become more renowned, they start missing school, become embarrassed, demonstrate behavior problems, and eventually drop out of school. This kind of predicament contributes to a high drop-out rate for Blacks and Hispanics which adversely impacts their economic future.

Public education is free to recipients until age 21 in some states, and perplexing as it may seem, better than 50 % of Americans in urban areas fail to earn a high school diploma during this period. Funding for public education is essentially a state responsibility, and amounts of funding for public education are inextricably related to political posture of the governor.

In 2011, pursuant to recent census data, 50 states spent some $10, 560 per pupil and over all states expended some $595.1 billion in this same period. Per pupil expenditure varies significantly with states like New York $18,618, Washington D C $18,617, New Jersey $18,641, Connecticut $14,996 Massachusetts $14,350, and Maryland $13,738 according to a CNN report. Coincidentally, students from these states have a tendency to score higher on standardize test such as ACT and SAT when applying to a college, according to a college officials.

According to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Mexican Americans should be treated as an identifiable minority group and that two minority groups apart from white students did not achieve desegregation.  Hispanic students have and continue to be discriminated against in public education, but they are entitled to equal access to public education under the law. Court cases filed on behalf of Hispanics have not been as prominent as it has been for African Americans.

This attributes too much of the subliminal oppression Hispanics have been subjected to in public education. In spite of their rise in the American population, gaps in educational achievement and earnings between Hispanics and nonwhites continue to expand. This predicament offers evidence that segregated schools are not providing the rapidly growing Hispanic population with tools to succeed in a non- Hispanic society.

Hispanics students are entitled to both a desegregated educational experience and bilingual programs ensuring integration of Hispanic and non-Hispanic students.  They are not permitted to have access to advance programs in math and science or STEM curriculum, which they claim they are denied while the slots are given to Asian and White students.  Hispanics allege being denied access to educational mainstream which causes them to be ill prepared for college in the same vein as Whites and Asians. Currently, nearly a fourth of Hispanics are reported to live in poverty and if some of the current practices continue they are destined to become, not only the nation’s largest minority group, but also the most disadvantaged.
       
Education is, by far, the most effective vehicle Blacks and Hispanics can utilize to avoid becoming a negative statistic.  America is by far one of the most generous nations in the world when it comes to public education.  Most states have a constitution in place authorizing governmental entities to levy and collect taxes for ‘the good of the people’ and to pay for infrastructure, education, health safety and other essential services.

In the event these taxes are not paid within a specified date of notification, severe penalties could be instituted, inclusive of and not limited to, foreclosure of subject property for failure to pay taxes. Students are compelled to stay in school until a certain age and governmental entities have law enforcement agents to make sure students remain in school until they reach the legal dropout age of 16. One of the reasons why America is a technologically advanced country and a multitude of foreigners desire to come to this country to access free public education.
 
Pursuant to Pew Research Center of Tabulation of the Current Population Survey Supplement, 92% of white adults surveyed age 25 and older had a high school diploma, 86% for Blacks 89% for Asians and 65% for Hispanics. Be mindful the aforementioned statistics are based upon a 25 year period as opposed to an 18 year period for completion. In this case, many had dropped out and returned due to reasons for advancement germane to employment. High school completion rate has consistently improved for both Blacks and Hispanics.

A college education is not mandatory but essential to income and wealth building in America. Considering adults age 25 and older in 2012, 34% of whites had a college degree, 25 % Blacks, 15 % Hispanics and 52% of Asians had completed college. This is based upon age 25 and the normal age range is 22 if entry to college occurs immediately after high school. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s) have been a super gigantic force in providing Blacks an opportunity to obtain a college education.

A college degree is a transformative element in a person’s life and HBCUs have been in the vanguard in this effort for the past 50 years. They enroll in excess of 375,000 students and graduate significant percent of all African Americans receiving degrees. They consist of only 3% of the nation’s 3,700 institutions of higher learning but are responsible for approximately 23 % of all bachelor degrees, 13 % of master’s degrees and 20 percent of professional degrees earned by African Americans annually. More than 50% of the nation’s African American public school teachers and 70% of African American Dentist and physicians earned degrees from HBCU’s.

Black colleges have played a monumental role in the educational and economic attainment of Blacks causing these institutions to be a crucial force from a market perspective. At this juncture, HBCU’s are struggling for survival, due to declining enrollment, deferred maintenance in facilities, shortfall in governmental funding and fundraising. But the most catastrophic factor is due to lack of financial support from their alumni.

Those individuals that have been greatest benefactors from association with Black colleges, now more than ever before Black colleges need their support. By failing to support Black colleges, the Black intelligentsia, in particular, and Blacks in general, are assassins of their educational parents and contributing to their own destruction.  Caucasians have no fundamental reason to support Black colleges but a humanitarian obligation should prevail.
 
Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities has only been in existence since 1997 and it does not have the longevity or support as the National Association of Black Colleges and Universities. Hispanics have not had the benefit of an abundance of Hispanic institutions to buttress their higher learning educational endeavors, but they continue to make strides based purely on desire for achievement and numbers.  Their population is increasing exponentially in America and they are on track to become a numerical majority population in a very short time frame.

This could pose a serious threat in this country for African Americans regarding employment opportunities by making entry level positions considerably more difficult for Blacks to attain.  Hispanics have a history of allegiance and cohesion to each other and numerous jobs are based upon referral from good employees. In no uncertain terms, it should be crystal clear, education and etiquette are inextricably germane to upward social mobility in America and void of education they will be unable to navigate the system and will ultimately be extricated from benefits.

There is no question that higher education in America is the pathway to middle class, not only for Americans but also foreign students, and is highly sought after by students from around the world. According to a WSJ (Wall Street Journal) report, foreign student’s enrollment at colleges and universities in the US in May 2013 terminated at 819,644, an increase of 7.25 % from the previous year. This country’s leading international students in American colleges and universities was none other than China, the second largest economy in the world, with some 235,597 students, followed by Brazil and Saudi Arabia.  Foreign students are a gold mine for American colleges and universities because they pay full tuition, are ineligible for federal grants and loans, pay out of state fees as applicable and are often times sponsored by their governments. 

Each of these advanced economies is growing rapidly and appears to be void of deficits, debt, venom and baggage inherent in American politico economic system. Eventfully, they could use educational skills garnered in America to make America a less dominant economic power.

To be continued.

By F. Eugene Mayo

The author is a Real Estate Broker and Agent, Dallas, Texas and can be reached at f_ mayo @ sbcglobal.net