WASHINGTON -- It's been a long, long time coming.

"Because of what we did on this date, in this election, at this defining moment change has come to America," President-elect Barack Obama said in his victory speech.

As an African-American mother of three children, I've been sporadically crying ever since Election Night. When I tell my children they can work hard and aspire to any job in this country, that statement is finally, finally true.

But my joy is muted because there's still some change that hasn't come.

"This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids, to restore prosperity ... to reclaim the American dream," Obama said.

For large pockets of America's population, prosperity is still an American dream deferred.

Obama will confront the enormous challenge of leading the country out of what is surely a recession. But the road out should be shared by all.

Income for all U.S. households has stagnated. But the numbers are worse for Hispanics and African-Americans. "They are likely to suffer first and to suffer more in an economy that does not produce widely shared prosperity," wrote Amanda Logan and Tim Westrich in an updated version of "The State of Minorities: How Are Minorities Faring in the Economy?" that was published by the Center for American Progress.

And how are minorities faring?

Not well.

From income to unemployment to health care to homeownership, Hispanics and African-Americans lag significantly behind whites, according to the data compiled by the center.

From 2000 to 2007, Hispanics' median family income declined from $39,935 to $38,679, an annualized average drop of 0.5 percent. Whites' median income also decreased during this time, but by only $12 (in 2007 dollars). Whites' median family income was $54,920 in 2007, 1.4 times higher than that of Hispanics.

The median income of African-Americans declined by an average of 0.7 percent per year from 2000 to 2007, dropping from $35,720 in 2000 to $34,091 in 2007.

In 2007, 8.2 percent of whites were in poverty, compared with 21.5 percent of Hispanics and 24.4 percent for African-Americans, according to the center's report.

In the second quarter of 2008, the unemployment rate for Hispanics was 7.2 percent while the rate for whites was 4.7 percent. The unemployment rate for African-Americans, almost double that of whites, was 9.1 percent in the second quarter of 2008.

In 2007, 32.1 percent of Hispanics and 19.2 percent of African-Americans didn't have health care coverage, compared with 10.4 percent of whites.

The homeownership rate for whites in 2007 was 75.2 percent, compared with 49.7 percent for Hispanics and 47.2 percent for African-Americans. Continued...