10:21 PM CDT on Saturday, July 2, 2005

"Who knew?" That expression – reflecting both surprise and pleasure – summed up the response of five financially successful African-American professionals who joined members of the editorial board this week to discuss last week's news series titled "A New Face of Affluence."

The series explored the three-fold increase during the 1990s in the number of black households in this region that enjoy annual incomes of at least $100,000. The five-way, 90-minute conversation, excerpted here, was lively, wide-ranging and insightful.

For starters, the participants wanted to be clear that, in their view ...

Robert Patterson: I read the series of articles ... and I was surprised by the numbers. My perception is that we weren't doing as well in the metroplex as Atlanta, Washington and some other areas, so I was pleasantly surprised by that – and educated. But I did feel that the terminology of "affluence" was perhaps a misnomer. Income does not necessarily mean affluence or wealth at all.

Valencia McClure: To me, the articles were saying that we have a foothold, and the opportunities to start building on those that are there. Ten, 20 years ago, I thought success was to make a good living. Now I think it's focused on creating net worth and not just to hit that six-figure salary, and say, "Hey, this is it. I've arrived."

Rufus Moshay: I know I'm not a net-worth person. My household may be at a certain income level, but I wouldn't perceive us to be affluent. I don't have a house in Aspen or the Cape. I have to show up at work.

Michele Majors: Just because it looks like you're wealthy, that's not wealth. You need to be able to afford that house if something should happen. If you lose your job, if your income diminishes, if your partner's not working, you need to be able to afford it.

Ms. McClure: [The series] really is talking about middle-class African-Americans. That's really what the focus should have been. Wherever "wealth" was [used in the articles], it should have been "middle class."

Mr. Patterson: In reality, many of us reading these series of articles, we're saying to ourselves, ... I'm not doing nearly as well as perhaps some believe that I am.

Martin Burrell: And that's where the danger comes, because you begin to get a society that believes all of a sudden that African-Americans have risen to this wealthy height. In many instances, you may be letting a lot of employers off the hook – people who are saying, "Boy, we're doing good."

Mr. Patterson: I guess living in the city of Dallas, I don't really have a relationship with other African-Americans who are living in Coppell and Frisco and Southlake. It's as if we don't know each other exists because we're so spread out.

Ms. McClure: There's really not a political organization or other organization to bring us all together. There was a time back in '98, '99, we had a minority in every head political position in the city, and now that's gone. ... Because you do have people that are spread out, it's hard to build that whole support system.

Mr. Burrell: I think political representation in Dallas County for African-Americans and other minorities is strong. What I'm concerned about is the Coppells, the Little Elms and places like that where many of the African-Americans have gone. ... I'm not saying blacks must represent blacks, and whites must represent whites, but what we've seen traditionally is that an African-American can't get elected unless there's about 51 percent African-American support.

Mr. Patterson: I think we have lost ground. I don't think we are building for the future in terms of black elected officials. In order for us to get to where we want to be and need to be, there has to be more of a focus on the middle-class or wealthy blacks. We are not spending as much time as we need focusing on how we can accomplish things politically.

Mr. Burrell: My desire has always been to be somewhere I'm represented by people of color, or at least have an opportunity to be represented by people of color. ... I've never had a desire to chase all the way up to Frisco, looking for a dream. I'm proud of those who have moved to other areas, but they have a responsibility to come seeking what I already have, which is this kind of connectedness to my overall community.

Mr. Moshay: I think we all – regardless of where we live – do feel a sense of responsibility to the broader community. ... I think a large part of how we got here was on the backs of people who fought hard for us to have an option to live in Flower Mound or Plano.

Mr. Burrell: You're right, Rufus. Don't get me wrong. I don't want to demean anybody who has moved to the other areas, because that's what the fight was all about – to make sure that the guy in Little Elm is not going to have a KKK sign splashed on his front lawn, that he has a right to be able live in any one of these communities. But I don't want to tout this concept that I've got to run away from the core inner city in order to find a better lifestyle. I think Dallas offers a tremendous lifestyle for me and my family, and I feel very comfortable with that.

Mr. Patterson: I don't know that this community has figured out yet how we grow from within, and I think that's one of the reasons we're in the outlying suburbs. These are individuals who have transferred into the metroplex, and realtors – who quite frankly don't know the inner city and don't look like us – have directed them to those areas.

Ms. Majors: Many of the people I work with were told to live north of downtown. I'm the only person in my job who lives south of downtown. The only one.

Ms. McClure: When I graduated from college I moved out to Las Colinas, but then as I got more mature in my career and got involved in city politics, I came back to the city. Now I wouldn't leave to go to the suburbs. But people who are moving here haven't experienced Dallas proper, so of course, if you have a realtor taking you to Plano and the other places, you're going to love it out there, especially if you're working in those suburbs.

Mr. Moshay: We bought in Plano because my in-laws live in Far North Dallas, and we knew once we had a child, we wanted it to be convenient to our parents. But the other thing was the commute to work – and value. We wanted a new home, and they weren't really building new homes in North Dallas for under $600,000.

Mr. Burrell: We can't overlook that some people, unfortunately, have this notion that moving to the suburbs is "moving on up," like in The Jeffersons. Even now you have people that have this notion that a North Dallas address or a northern address is better. Even people who move to Duncanville or DeSoto are not perceived as prestigious as those who have gone to Flower Mound or Coppell.

Mr. Moshay: And there are some beautiful homes in the south – 6,000-square-foot homes. Breathtaking.

Ms. Majors: Perception is very important because when I chose to move to Lancaster ... I got, "Oh, you're moving to Lancaster? Why do you want to do that?" I got that constantly. I said, "Why not?" I know people who live there, and I'm very close to my parents. To me it's an extended neighborhood of my old neighborhood. That's the way I view it.

Mr. Patterson: I want to make a comment on the school issue, which I think many of us are struggling with – those of us trying to be progressive in the African-American community. I have two sons, 17 and 12, and my tuition bills [for private school] are in excess of $30,000 a year. It's a choice that, quite frankly, I have struggled with. My wife and I both were educated in public schools. We got the best education that was available. But it's a shame that many of us in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, if we want diversity in our schools, the option is a private school. Think about that statement. I think that's a true statement. You're not going to get a diverse mix in your child's school based upon where you live. That's a shame.

Mr. Burrell: The [racial] diversity that my kids would have gotten in their home school would have been zero. I sent them to Bishop Dunne mainly because I wanted them to be around what I consider like-minded individuals, and for its size. My niece graduated from Plano East Senior High School – 1,700 graduates!

Mr. Moshay: It's too large.

Mr. Burrell: I just consider that to be a huge factory.

Mr. Patterson: For my older kid, it wasn't a good fit at the private school where he was [originally]. He was there for six years. We put him in public school for two years. Not a good experience. We sat down and determined we had to do something different. He is now at Bishop Dunne, and we have been really pleased with that experience. The composition there, in terms of diversity is ...

Mr. Burrell: ... One-third, one-third, one-third.

Mr. Patterson: ... Very much so. And it's a caring environment. You want a safe environment for your kid. And that's my No. 1 requirement, to be perfectly honest. Before I look at academics, I have to evaluate the environment. And that's a shame. But it's a reality.

Mr. Burrell: When you hear African-Americans saying they're moving from Duncanville or Cedar Hill to go to Coppell ... what they're really saying – and it's unfortunate – is "I want to go to a school where it's predominantly white, because I think I'm going to get a better education in this school where there are more whites."

Mr. Moshay: Regardless of public or private, it's about the parental involvement, no matter where you are. ... I do think at times, with an African-American child, expectations are lower, and you do have to ride that teacher in some cases. I think we, as African-Americans, have to show up at that school, be it public or private, to make sure our child is getting the best education.

Mr. Patterson: And that's a challenge. We don't have positions where we can say to our associates, "I'm out for the afternoon. I need to be at my son's school."

Mr. Burrell: I don't know too many people who have that capability. Many people, they want to beat everybody to the job because they want to prove that they're worthy of what they're doing, and then they've got to be the last to leave. Among many of these high-income categories, there's still a double standard. They're having to do just a stellar performance in order to maintain where they are.

Mr. Moshay: I don't think that's [exclusively] ethnic, but it's exacerbated when you happen to be African-American. With all the mergers and acquisitions, if you have a job, that's not guaranteed. If you have your own business, that's guaranteed. But most people with a job know that it's fleeting in this economy. There's no 30-year contract.

Ms. Majors: That's why I think, at least for me, the next frontier – in terms of what people should do or what the issues should be – is financial independence. And also to really teach our young people about entrepreneurship because if you own it, it's yours. You can pass your wealth on to another generation. ... People who become entrepreneurs employ people in their communities, and again, there's a sense of building wealth, trying to pass it on to someone else. I think we need to teach our children not only to pursue excellence, not only to pursue higher education, but also to look into entrepreneurship as an opportunity.