By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
According to local and national experts who study economic mobility, housing and race, Seattle’s Black middle class is increasingly being displaced by rising housing costs, wealth disparities and long-standing structural inequities.
While Black middle-class households continue to exist throughout the region, experts say many families are being pushed farther from Seattle’s urban core as the cost of living rises and pathways to wealth-building become more difficult to access.
“There is strong evidence that Seattle’s Black middle class has been shrinking and getting pushed out, but it’s not a simple ‘disappearing entirely’ story. It’s more accurate to say it’s being displaced, redistributed and squeezed economically,” said Linda Taylor, chief programs officer for the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle.
Angela Simms, an assistant professor of sociology and urban studies at Barnard College-Columbia University, said the conversation begins with a broader question: What does it mean to be middle class in today’s economy?
Simms said traditional markers of middle-class stability, such as a college degree, white-collar employment and steady income, have become increasingly difficult to maintain as living costs continue to rise.
“If you’re talking about stability, use income with a white-collar job and college degree, because those are the jobs that have the most consistent incomes between middle-class status,” said Simms. “For the Black middle class specifically, much of the physical infrastructure that enables their middle-class status is funded by tax dollars, and if you don’t have sufficient federal and local investment at the federal and state levels, then you are going to have that decline that is going to happen over time.”
Simms said the challenges facing the Black middle class are tied not only to today’s housing market and cost-of-living pressures, but also to decades of public policy decisions and economic shifts that have reduced investment in public services and community infrastructure.
According to Simms, many Americans are struggling simply to keep up with the cost of maintaining a stable life, but Black communities are often more vulnerable because of longstanding historical inequalities tied to wealth and economic opportunity.
“Black Americans, in particular, because of slavery, we don’t have the same wealth. When we lose a job, we typically don’t have years of savings and don’t have the capacity to withstand those margins,” said Simms. “Because Black homes appreciate at a lower rate because of the specific underinvestment by governments and markets in Black spaces, we just make less wealth through the primary wealth-building asset.”
Homeownership, often considered one of the primary pathways to building generational wealth, has become increasingly difficult to achieve for many Americans. Rising housing costs and limited financial resources have left many wondering who can realistically afford to buy a home in today’s market.
Taylor said a relatively small group of households are still positioned to purchase homes in the region.
“Mostly high-income households, dual earners, and people with generational wealth,” said Taylor. “Don’t forget the people who can take advantage of the Covenant Homeownership Program.”
The Covenant Homeownership Program provides down payment assistance to eligible Washington residents whose families were harmed by historical housing discrimination and exclusionary housing policies.
Simms said homeownership often remains more attainable for people who already have access to family wealth or financial support.
“Often, those who have trust funds are able to buy a home. You just have to have the wealth. Even if you have a decent salary, many times you would not have enough for a down payment,” said Simms. “I think the people who are able to buy homes are those who come from wealth and have intergenerational wealth.”
She added that Black Americans have historically had fewer opportunities to accumulate the financial resources often needed to qualify for a mortgage.
“Because of the history of this country, we have fewer opportunities to attain the median incomes that come from the kinds of financial backing that you need to be able to apply for a mortgage and get your mortgage,” said Simms.
According to Taylor, wealth disparities persist even among households with similar educational attainment.
“In fact, Black college graduates can have less wealth than white households with less education,” said Taylor. “Black student debt, less family financial support, labor market disparities, redlining, [and many more financial challenges Black communities often face.]”
Despite gains in education and homeownership among some Black households, Simms said many families continue to face systemic barriers rooted in the nation’s history.
“We are happy to celebrate the founding of this country, but at the founding of this country, we were enslaved,” said Simms. “The business that white men built reflects the head start they had. They initially made their money in some way that was based on the value of enslaved people.”Simms said those historical inequities continue to shape wealth distribution and economic opportunity today.
“Black Americans can’t get ahead because we are carrying the weights of the past when somebody else had a head start,” said Simms. “The Black middle class is struggling compared to the white middle class, and as we are seeking to get ahead, often some of our strategies can actually diminish.”
She also pointed to the long history of Black communities building businesses, churches, institutions and towns despite significant barriers, only to face underinvestment or destruction.
“It is either undermined over time by a sort of weathering or withholding of resources like public goods and services,” said Simms. “We all know about Tulsa, but there are dozens of Tulsas. By the time we got to the civil rights movement, you already have these distributions of wealth that are regionalized and class-based, and those two things are fundamentally connected.”
Drawing from her recent book, Fighting for a Foothold: How Government and Markets Undermine Black Middle-Class Suburbia, Simms said Black Americans often contribute as much to society as their White counterparts while receiving fewer benefits from public and private investment.
“We often are paying as much as White Americans in taxes, if not more, and getting less in terms of investment by government and markets in Black spaces,” said Simms. “The book is really capturing the idea of what I call racial extraction.”
Ultimately, Simms said understanding those disparities is necessary to creating meaningful change.
“Black people are excluded from opportunity structures, and ultimately, I am really trying to sound the alarm around inequality that is still based on racial difference, not just class, so that we can really see what everyone can do now to move forward,” said Simms.
