LOCAL NEWS
IS ATLANTA REALLY WAKANDA?
Studies show it's ranked No.1 for income inequality, even though it’s considered the ‘Black Mecca.’
Author: Neima Abdulahi
Published: 10:23 PM EDT August 26, 2020
ATLANTA — It’s a comparison we’ve all heard by now: Atlanta and
Wakanda, the fictional country featured in the
movie Black Panther. It’s a location that thrives with resources, technology and diversity.
While the census shows that Black people are the majority of the population in Atlanta, the wealth gap between Black Atlantans and White Atlantans is wide.
The median household income for a White family is $83,722 compared to $28,105 for a Black family, according to the Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative.
Latresa McLawhorn Ryan is the executive director of the Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative. She said the data is startling.
“If a person is born into poverty in Atlanta, there’s a four percent chance of escaping poverty in their lifetime,” she said.
To compare the economic racial divide, just 2% of White households in Atlanta live below the poverty line, according to the American Community Survey.
The average Black-owned business is valued at $58,085 while the average value of a White-business is $658,264, according to the Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative.
But the imbalance doesn’t stop there.
Atlanta's top 5% of households are bringing home around $306,000 a year, while the bottom 20% all live below the poverty line, making less than $17,000 a year.
So, who’s in that bottom 20%?
You’ll find most of them in the heart of Atlanta’s south side and west side, where historic Black communities are trying to hold on to their neighborhoods, as property value goes up and gentrification begins to cause a demographic shift.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.11...ality/85-b8515e8a-2b49-4e62-883b-4cc09e38abb0