History lesson
The 90s saw unprecedented economic growth for african americans.
How have poverty, income, and inequality developed over this business cycle compared to earlier ones? Since the 1970s, poverty rates have been largely insensitive to economic growth, due to factors ranging from slower and less equally distributed growth, higher average unemployment, diminished wage growth at the low end of the pay scale, and the greater share of one-parent families, who are more vulnerable to poverty.
These trends were reversed, however, for a period in the latter 1990s, as uniquely low unemployment, strong job creation, and faster productivity growth enabled more workers to claim a larger share of the growing economy.
Median household income, for example, rose less than 1% between 1967 (earliest available data) and 1995, before speeding up to an annual rate of 1.9% (1995-2000). For minority households, median income growth in the latter 1990s was especially strong, as was poverty reduction, with the median income up 3.4% for African Americans and 5.3% for Hispanics. Poverty for African American children fell an unprecedented 10.7 percentage points, compared to 2.1 points for white children.
The recession starting in 2001 halted these gains, and—as is virtually always the case in a widespread downturn—poverty began to rise and household incomes fell across the income scale, particularly for working-age households (though high-income households were hit hard by large capital losses in the early 2000s).
But when the recession ended in late 2001, poverty and median income did not improve. To the contrary, both have worsened since then, as the so-called jobless recovery made it too difficult for working families—those that depend on paychecks, not stock portfolios—to find enough employment in decent quality jobs.
And here's what has happened since Clinton left office:
So when you say...
Quite a bit of the legislation that came out of his administration ended up in the long run to severely hurt minority populations economically. A prime example is NAFTA.
...you are just plain WRONG. NAFTA may have not been great for blacks but it certainly was in America's best interest, and it obviously didn't have a negative overall effect on blacks.