Pay gap divides blacks, whites in Sioux Falls

Marcus Brooks is starting a new job Monday five years in the making.

That’s how long the 31-year-old Sioux Falls resident wanted to work for the VA Health Care system, and now he's finally earned a position as a resident chaplain. College and seminary were options because of the example his parents set, and the support of family and friends, he said.

He knows not all feel the same support. For the growing black community in Sioux Falls, a widening pay gap is a problem in a city they know is trying to improve.

“There is a certain issue there if you have a particular group making double,” Brooks said.

Median income for black households dropped closer to the poverty line last year, while the rest of the four-county area enjoyed another increase in middle class income. The persistent divide is evidence of the barriers faced by the African American community when it comes to education and employment.

“I still think that prejudice and racism is still there,” said Bob Harris, director of the South Dakota African American Museum. “We’ve come a long way, and we’ve still got a way to go.”

The Sioux Falls metro area is home to a burgeoning black population, which grows yearly. It’s five times bigger than in 2000, and more than 10 times what it was in 1990.

Harris, who grew up in Sioux Falls, has witnessed an increase in the opportunities available to young black students. He joined the military after high school, while most of his white classmates went to college.

“Black people could not afford to send their kids to college, therefore they didn’t have the degree to get the higher paying jobs,” Harris said. “Where whites did.”

But recent numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau show little evidence of progress. Median income for black households dropped to $26,182 in 2015, falling thousands of dollars. It’s thousands of dollars less than the national average for blacks, and less than half of what their white counterparts earned locally.

Median income for the rest of the Sioux Falls metro ticked up another 1.7 percent, to $59,844. Whites in Sioux Falls climbed even higher, reaching a median income of $61,681

DaVonte Clay loves his job. But before the 22-year-old car salesman found a good employer in Billion Mazda, he had plenty of run-ins with prejudice in the workplace.

Previous employers treated him with different expectations than they had for white co-workers, Clay said. He isn’t consumed by bitterness, but he can’t ignore the brushes with bias he experienced throughout his youth and early adulthood.

“I see the bigger picture, but I’m also not an idiot,” Clay said.

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Colleges have more scholarships and opportunities available to black students, but the United States has been unable to shake a similar divide in educational attainment. White adults are far more likely to have at least a two-year degree.

Mark Blackburn is assistant dean of diversity and inclusion at Augustana University. He does outreach for the Sioux Falls campus and organizes community events to raise awareness.

“There’s still barriers for students to get access to education,” Blackburn said. “If you have the passion and the feeling and the drive to go to school there should be an opportunity to do it.”

Clay’s first reaction after learning about the income gap for black families was to think about solutions.

“How we can start improving the livelihood of those how are struggling,” Clay said.

Clay led the Black Lives Matter march in July after mounting racial tensions between police and blacks led to a string of shooting deaths.

Grassroots movements can spark change. But there also needs to be movement at the top, Blackburn said.

“Who are the organizers, CEOs, the people in power to change that demographic?” Blackburn said. “To change this paradigm?”

For all the negative portrayals of affirmative action, the practice appears to be necessary, Blackburn said. He points to the growing pay divide as proof.

Brooks believes it comes down to building trust. There needs to be more communication, requiring a willingness from both sides to talk, Brooks said.

“We need to have a sit down to see how we can improve the median for both parties,” Brooks said.