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‘Money, Class and Opportunity’
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Survey looks at perspectives on the middle class from blacks, whites and Hispanics.
THE
BIG PICTURE
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Institute on Race and Ethnicity’s 11th annual report on racial attitudes in Pulaski County finds that “The lost decade of the middle class” — the years since 2000 when the class began to shrink in wealth — “has affected many Pulaski County residents.” The report, “Money, Class and Opportunity,” based on 2,000 interviews conducted by telephone, will be released at the institute’s 2014 Racial Attitudes in Pulaski County Forum” from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Thursday, April 17, at the Ron Robinson Theatre. “Although some differences do emerge,” the report finds, “those effects have been felt by the whole community to a greater or lesser extent — black, white, and Hispanics alike.” The theater is in the Arcade Building on River Market Avenue; the entrance is on the south side of the building. State Sen. Joyce Elliott of Little Rock will moderate. Here are some key findings from the report:
“Most respondents have had to cut back on household spending in the past year. More than 1 out of 4 blacks have had problems getting or paying for medical care.” HISPANICS
WHITES OUTSIDE LR
BLACKS OUTSIDE LR
WHITES IN LITTLE ROCK
BLACKS IN LITTLE ROCK
CUT BACK ON SPENDING
61%
64%
70%
57%
68%
PAYING RENT/ MORTAGE
27%
16%
22%
11%
26%
PAYING FOR MEDICAL CARE
37%
23%
29%
13%
25%
LOST JOB OR LAID OFF
18%
9%
14%
7%
18%
Financial difficulties experienced in the past year
“Most respondents identify themselves as middle class. However, blacks and Hispanics see themselves in the lower class when compared to whites. Most respondents believe that having a secure job is necessary for middle-class status.”
“Blacks are significantly more likely to believe that a college education is needed to be middle class than are their white counterparts — despite [the fact that] more whites than blacks hold a college degree. By contrast, the number of Hispanic respondents who hold a college degree is significantly less than the number who indicated it is necessary.”
“A majority of all respondents blames Congress for the economic difficulties of the middle class; however, whites are much more likely to blame President Barack Obama’s administration for such difficulties.” WHITES BLACKS WHITES IN BLACKS IN HISPANICS OUTSIDE LR OUTSIDE LR LITTLE ROCK LITTLE ROCK CONGRESS
42%
62%
54%
61%
54%
LARGE CORPORATI ONS
31%
34%
40%
33%
46%
BANK & FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
30%
36%
38%
37%
40%
COMMUNITY EMPLOYERS
12%
5%
19%
6%
19%
OBAMA
22%
42%
8%
33%
6%
Percentages saying they blame each entity “a lot” for middle-class difficulties “Most lower-income respondents believe lower-income people pay “too much” in federal taxes, while all groups, especially blacks, believe that upper-income people pay “too little” in federal taxes.”
“Whites are significantly more likely to be ‘very satisfied’ with their quality of life and level of education than blacks and Hispanics. Blacks and Hispanics are less satisfied overall with their present jobs than whites.”
INSIDER, CONT. diction in the suit filed against him and, after being named as a respondent in Foster’s petition to the Court, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel also asked the Court to intervene and argued that late payment of dues shouldn’t disqualify a candidate. If the Supreme Court doesn’t take up Foster’s petition, surely a lower court decision will be appealed. Will Baker and Henry be forced to recuse? The eligibility question wouldn’t affect any of the other justices, as they all paid their dues late before Amendment 80 went into effect in July 2001.
Weev, freed Fayetteville’s Andrew Aurenheimer, better known as Internet troll and “hacker” weev, has been released from federal prison after a federal appeals court reversed and vacated his conviction and sentence. Aurenheimer was convicted in 2012 of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and sentenced to a 41-month prison term for what the government called “unauthorized access” of AT&T’s servers in 2010. In reality, Aurenheimer and another man, Daniel Spitler, discovered that AT&T hadn’t protected 114,000 email addresses of iPad owners, including then White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel, then New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other muckety mucks. Aurenheimer gave part of the list to the website Gawker. That led the FBI to investigate Aurenheimer and Spitler. The feds busted down Aurenheimer’s door in Fayetteville in 2011. Both he and Spitler were charged under the CFAA, a law that’s widely considered outdated and overbroad. The feds flipped Spitler, who testified against Aurenheimer. He’s spent more than a year in jail, partly in solitary — possibly for surreptitiously tweeting. Aurenheimer’s case has been a cause celebre for people who care about this sort of thing. But Aurenheimer hasn’t quite become a folk hero. That’s because, as sympathetic as the circumstances surrounding this case are, Aurenheimer is, by most accounts, the Internet’s biggest jerk. Gawker called him the “Internet’s best terrible person” in a profile. In a 2008 New York Times Magazine feature, he bragged, “I hack, I ruin, I make piles of money. I make people afraid for their lives.” www.arktimes.com
APRIL 17, 2014
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