In a book entitled "The Average American," author Kevin O'Keefe has listed a series of characteristics and "must-haves" for the average American living in today's society.
To gather his information, O'Keefe decided to travel across the country, scoping out who he thought may have been the "average American" and he recorded his findings. Some of what O'Keefe found to be characteristics of the "average American" was eating peanut butter at least once a week, having an average of nine friends, getting married at least once in a lifetime and growing up 50 miles from their current home.
Sure, there are African Americans who can relate to O'Keefe's book, but who is the average African American?
African-American Studies Professor Priscilla Ramsey agrees that like the average American, African Americans do work to have more money than their parents because they want to be well-off and also to create a safety net for others in their family.
"The average African American keeps a door open to a larger extended family members," Ramsey said, "so that when a relative is in need, or having financial troubles they will have something to fall back on, and most African Americans want to be there for their family."
According to Ramsey, in addition to wanting to be financially stable, the average African American surrounds himself with a circle of friends that is on the same professional level as he is.
"The average middle class African American has professional friends, they want to be able to take satisfying vacations, drive a decent car, maybe two, and most have the need for a sense of money and respect," Ramsey said.
Even though O'Keefe's book was meant to be light-hearted and fun in explaining the average American, some people may agree that the average African American is just not that simple.
Thomas Blackwell, an African-American studies professor at California State Hayward University, considers himself an above average African-American male. Blackwell has a different take on the subject, as he believes that the average African American has a gender difference.
"Unfortunately the average African-American is usually a female. The average African- American female and the average African-American male are two different things," Blackwell said. "The female tends to be higher educated, more successful and part of the middle class, as for the average male whose stats are less impressive."
Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau show that today there is a much higher percenttage of black woman in college compared to black men.
"In actuality, you can't really put a label on who the average African American is because there are too many categories in which one can be placed," Blackwell said. "It depends on who you are considering average. You have the average middle class African American who lives in a 3-bedroom house with 2 kids and a good job, making at least $100,000 a year. And then you have the average lower class 1-parent household with an income of less than $30,000 a year, of course the two sides are going to have different characteristics. And then which side is average?" Blackwell said.
Antoinette Stubbs, a 48- year-old probation officer from Baltimore considers herself to be an average African American.
In terms of her everyday life, "I work a 9 to 5 everyday. My income is $75,000 a year. I drive a basic Honda and I have the average family: three kids a husband and a 3-bedroom house," Stubbs said. "Nothing special."
Stubbs said that though she gets to take vacations, she has to really save to go somewhere worthwhile.
"I live a very average lifestyle," Stubbs said, who says she can't do anything but cater to her kids on the weekends.
It's not easy to classify the characteristics of the average African American because there are multiple ways to look at it. Do African Americans even agree with the term "average"? However you chose to look at it, here are a few of the characteristics of the average African American:
Will live to be about 71 years old
Lives in the South (55%)
Is not married (47% married)
Does not live in a two-parent household (36% live in a two-parent home)
Lives in a better home than the one in which they grew up
Does not own home (46.3% own home)
Lives in a city
Does not smoke cigarettes (23.2% smoke cigarettes)
Works a technical or retail job
Reads magazines (85%)
Is considered "lower income" (30% are middle and upper class)
Makes at least $25,000 a year
Has a high school diploma but not a bachelor's degree (14% bachelor's)
Is about 30 years old
Spends more for what is perceived as "the best" (64%)
Sources: Media Market Daily,
Census.gov, American Demographics
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Wednesday, November 16th 2005 at 10:37AM
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