'Black joy is contagious': Happiness for Black Americans is abundant, but disparities persist

For Andrea Walls, joy begins with a warm cup of coffee served in her favorite mug at the start of the day.

And it doesn't stop there. At the start of 2020 – a year marked by the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis and a nationwide pandemic that struck the Black population at disproportionate rates – Walls, 60, decided to go out each day and photograph everyday moments of Black joy around Philadelphia.

"I felt like there needs to be equal time for the other true story, that there's this incredible capacity that Black people have to endure the most incredible trauma and yet respond with creativity, with joy," said Walls, founder of the Museum of Black Joy.

Walls said though it's not hard for her to find these moments in communities across the country, there are still obstacles that make feeling joy a challenge.

"The barriers are still what they have always been: the dehumanizing realities of the systems that have been set in place since the beginning of the nation," she said.

More than 80% of Black Americans said they are at least somewhat happy, according to a survey of more than 4,700 people released Thursday by the Pew Research Center. Most said spending time with loved ones, spiritual or religious practices and traveling brought them joy, but researchers found how happy Black people said they were and what activities brought them joy varied greatly by income.

"There's a lot of variation in the economic experiences within the Black population that we don't always focus on instead of looking at the white-Black wealth gap," said Khadijah Edwards, author of the report and a research associate focusing on race and ethnicity at Pew.

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Black Americans with higher incomes more likely to be happy, enjoy certain activities

The connection between money and happiness has been studied for decades, and Edwards said this survey found patterns similar to previous research: Black adults with higher incomes were almost twice as likely as those with low incomes to say they were extremely or very happy.

Researchers determined the income tiers in the survey by adjusting a respondent's family income based on the cost of living in their area and the size of their household. Lower-income families adjusted incomes were less than $47,800. Upper-income families were greater than $143,400.

Edwards said researchers also found Black Americans who make more money were also more likely to say they were fulfilled by activities that could be expensive. More than three-quarters of Black Americans with higher incomes said they found joy in traveling, for example, but less than half of Black Americans with lower incomes said the same.

Much like the differences in income between Black and white families, economic disparities among Black families can be stark. Pew research from 2019 found the top 10% of Black-headed households earned 14 times the amount of those in the bottom 10%.

Meanwhile, a typical Black employee is paid about 23% less per hour than a typical white worker, and a typical white family has eight times as much wealth as their Black counterparts, according to an August report from the Economic Policy Institute. For Adreinne Waheed, the photographer behind the 2019 photo book "Black Joy and Resistance," structural racism and the economic inequalities it creates are among the biggest barriers to Black joy.

"Imagine if those things didn't happen and there was never a wealth gap, and that Black folks had the generational wealth that their white counterparts had," said Waheed, 52. "Then that could contribute a lot to Black joy because we could have more resources, more financial resources to do the things that we love to do."

Kleaver Cruz, the writer and creator behind The Black Joy Project, agreed that while having less financial security can make it more difficult for Black people to be joyful, it doesn't make it impossible.

"What I've also learned is in the spaces and places in the world where 'things are most limited materially and otherwise,' is actually where the most joy exists," he said.

'Black joy is contagious'

Cruz, 35, first shared images of Black joy in November 2015, after waking up feeling particularly depressed. He shared a photo of his mother on Facebook and pledged to share more pictures for the rest of the year.

He got such positive feedback that he formalized the personal challenge into the Black Joy Project. Years later, he turned the project into a book featuring more than one hundred photos and eight essays, published in December.

Cruz said though there are as many ways to define Black joy as there are Black people, the project has taught him many people's definition boils down to the same thing: freedom.

"Black folks just want to be let alone to live and express themselves fully without interruption, without being told how to be, essentially being free," he said.

Waheed, who captured images of New York street festivals, the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March in Washington and student protests in Johannesburg for her book, echoed that sentiment, saying that to her Black joy means having "the freedom to live without fear. The freedom to be our full selves." Waheed said one of the things that brings her the most joy is capturing other Black people experiencing moments of happiness.

"My work is a celebration of Black folks. It's a love letter to Black folks," she said. "And I think that Black joy is contagious."

For Walls, who said she is planning to create a community photo studio and mobile museum in Philadelphia, Black joy is also something distinct from mere happiness.

"Happiness seems to me something that, as the Declaration of Independence says, this pursuit, you have to go get it..." she said. "And joy is that reservoir within us, that holds our memory and our ancestral lineage and it's available at any time."