A study released last week by the Pew Charitable Trusts shows that over a generation African-Americans have a more difficult time maintaining middle class status than other groups.

The study, which began in 1968, tracked the economic status of more than 2,300 Americans, 730 of whom were African-American. Forty-five percent of blacks born to middle-class families in 1968 slid down the socioeconomic ladder. Their median family income was $23,100 compared to an inflation-adjusted $55,600 for their parents in 1968.

Only 16 percent of whites born to middle-class families had lower median incomes than their parents.

For lower-income blacks and whites, this disparity also existed.

The study found that 90 percent of whites born into low-income families now earned more than their parents did. In comparison, 75 percent of blacks surpassed the income levels of their parents.

Researchers don’t have an explanation for why the gap exists. But some economists have speculated the increase in single, mostly female headed households in the black community and the difference in education levels between blacks and whites are two factors.

Apparently not everyone is succumbing to the lure of social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace.

A study released earlier this week concluded African-Americans prefer to use the Internet for business and not pleasure. The study solely focused on what the authors termed “African-American influentials” (whatever that means) to draw conclusions about the online habits of blacks.

One interesting conclusion was that only 49 percent of these black influentials used Facebook, compared to 76 percent of the general population of people who actively use the Web, whom the study’s authors termed “online influencers.”

“African American-fluentials tend to embrace the Web for business and ‘serious’ pursuits while favoring a range of offline communications tools for social networking,” said Mireille Grangenois, managing director of U.S. Multicultural. “They are twice as likely to use handwritten notes than U.S. e-fluentials but half as likely to write blog entries.”

The tendency to network away from the confines of the Web could be because blacks have a  propensity toward being involved in a physical community, rather than a virtual one.

I recently interviewed one business owner on the West Side of Chicago who told me he was always skeptical when potential investors would try to make contact with him over the phone instead of coming to his restaurant to introduce themselves.

“With us black people, it’s the trust issue,” he said. “We prefer face-to-face contact.”

Fox News reported Wednesday that inner city neighborhoods are conducting health screenings at local barbershops and beauty salons, places that have traditionally served as gathering points for black men and women.

Black men are at greater risk of contracting and dying from major diseases, like cancer, heart attack and stroke. Black women are less likely to get breast cancer, but almost twice as likely to die from it than white women.

According to the “Atlas of Racial and Ethnic Disparities among Men with Heart Disease,” black men over the age of 35 are 26 percent more likely to die from the disease than their white counterparts and almost 50 percent more likely to die from it than Hispanics.

The barbershops and beauticians have employed many strategies to address these health disparities. Four thousand barbers are part of Prostate Net,  a program which provides information on screening and affordable  health services. Others have been trained to test for high blood pressure and obesity.

Dr. Wayne Giles, director of the Division of Adult and Community Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said these efforts are a form of community activism that can save lives.

“The idea that people can do things to prevent chronic conditions is a message that doesn’t resonate with many African-Americans,” Giles said. “More and more communities of color are doing what affluent communities have done for decades. They are empowering themselves to take control of their environment.”