The Impact that Race and Class has on Wealth America is a place of potential opportunity and success. There is a possibility of prosperity for everyone, no matter one’s race, social class, or ethnicity. However, success is more easily achievable for white Americans. People of color in America have struggled for centuries with housing, jobs and education all due to their race. Even though it is not just, white Americans have had the upper hand simply because of their skin color.
Black people and white Americans do not inhabit the same city, and there is a huge income gap between black people and white Americans. The income of Chicago’s white neighborhoods is almost three times that of its black neighborhoods. Coates declares that black families, regardless of income, are significantly less wealthy than white families, as an evidence the estimation from the Pew Research Center that he cites: “White households are worth roughly 20 times as much as black households, and that whereas only 15 percent of whites have zero or negative wealth, more than a third of blacks do.” (6) From the research, Coates emphasizes that black people live in the United States without safe surroundings, and they would face a series of problems in their lives such as a medical emergency, divorce and unemployment when financial calamity strikes. Without adequate protections for black people, many liberals think that racism is not an active concept, but as a relative of white poverty and inequality.
Coates presents a series of statistical information that ultimately shares the idea that the lives of African American have not made as much progress as we would like to believe. Yes, the presences of white only signs are gone, black poverty rates have decreased, and black pregnancy rates are at a record low, but in certain aspects such as the income gap between blacks and white, its roughly the same as it was in 1970. Coates goes forth to explain the this is essentially due to that obviously fact that African Americans in the country have never had a gateway/path to wealth. Black families, regardless of the household income, are incredibly less wealthy than their white counterparts. Research done by The Pew Research Center discovered that white households are worth an estimated 20 times more than that of black households.
He had to take some of his children out of private school.” (Coates 30). Coates shows that the black population’s wealth was taken away by America. Black populations have to work twice the hard or more to achieve the same goals the white populations and most of their wealth were taken .Even though the black population was aware that they were trick and ripped off by the seller but they can’t do anything about it.
The in the article “Inheriting Footholds and Cushions” by Sleeter she goes into speaking about her own personal history she dug up taking a deep look into what her relatives did. Back in the 1800s land was given to her family, which we know land equals wealth. From this came great profits which allowed most whites to gain all the wealth. Her family grew up in nice houses in nice neighborhoods which allowed family to attended good schools to get good jobs and houses again. To keep wealth within families children need good educations to get good jobs one day, so private money is put into certain schools to make
There is huge hole between the asian and european americans on onside, and african americans on the other. Many individuals contribute this hole the evident "lethargy" of the african american individuals, and saying they have break even with chances to profit as different races. however , this isn 't right. The poor monetary status of today blacks is profoundly established in the efficient bigotry they have looked all through their history in america. Only 60 years prior, dark individuals were denied similar open doors for trainings and work.
Dating back to its inception Congress “has never been a place for paupers (Lightblau, 5).” With each change in the country, the United States Congress rarely deviated away from its long-standing tradition of having wealthy, white men heavily represented in both chambers. Individuals who were elected ranged from “plantation owners, industrialists, ex- Wall Street financiers and Internet executives (Lightblau, 5).” Research conducted shows that “the typical member of Congress is worth more than nine times the typical voter that puts them in Washington (Thompson, 2).”
Another important aspect in closing the racial wealth gap that exist between African households in comparison to white households is income. According to the article, The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap: Explaining the Black-White Economic Divide: “national, state, and local levels, including raising the minimum wage, enforcing equal pay provisions, and strengthening employer-based retirement plans and other benefits.”(). Increasing minimum wage allow individuals to increase their disposable income which will also encourage individuals to save more. Also, enforcing employer-based retirement plans and benefits can allow individuals to have an income to sustain themselves when they are exiting the work force. Also, bring back and funding
This social class categorizes the rich, the poor and the “one percent “on a wide spectrum. In the United States, the blacks and whites are at both ends of the distributed wealth throughout the country. Caucasians remain at the “rich, privileged” side of the spectrum while the blacks remain at the “poor, unprivileged” end. In between both groups lies the latinos, which seem to fall closer to African American side of the spectrum. It is believed that this wealth gap had been formed due to the saying “it takes money to make money” (Conley).
One interesting thing the author notes is the wealth inequality in the United States. Even though “1% of the population own nearly half the wealth in the country the American dream persists” (Golash-Boza, pg. 269). People still believe that if you work hard you will succeed. At first glance, it’s clear that white people have a higher percentage of home ownership than any other race. However in saying that, I would like to know what the population totals were by race for each state as well.
The fundamental idea of black economics is under investigation in this research to explain the gaps that exist in the community in terms of unemployment, poverty, income, wealth, assets, and education compared to the leading racial group. According to the article, Learning Race, Socializing Blackness: A Cross-Generational Analysis of Black Americans’ Racial Socialization Experiences, “The contemporary discourse that is prevalent in the African American community has been documented for many years since the post-Civil Rights Movement Era” (Nunnally). Fueling this discourse is a working assumption that somehow African Americans are equal to other racial groups and the economic barriers that exist in their community are caused by their lack of
Golash-Boza states that African Americans and Latinos have less than 8 percent of the wealth that whites have. Because African Americans as well as Latinos make less money than Whites, they are unable to own the same type of homes Whites are able to. Based on a study conducted by Shapiro, Meschede, and Osoro; the wealth gap is attributed to five factors. These factors are years of homeownership, household income, years of unemployment, college education, and inheritances or financial support from family members. Years of homeownership accounted for the largest portion of the differences between White and African American families.
There is a profound gap of wealth between median black and white families, In Race, Wealth, and Intergenerational Poverty, Darrick Hamilton, Professor of Economics and Policy, and William Darity, Professor of Public Policy, discuss the causes of this gap, and measures that can be taken to resolve the disparity. Hamilton and Darity assert the claim that we live today in a post-racial America is false, largely due to the fact that the disproportionate wealth gap between median white and black families exists. They present statistics from a 2002 survey, demonstrating the gap of net worth between white and black families to support this. Hamilton and Darity, using this evidence, dismisses the assertation that race is no longer a determining factor in one’s life chances, which many claim is so gesturing to the election of President Barack Obama, but the evidence of the wealth gap supports the contrary. As to why this gap still exist, Hamilton and Darity dismiss the two most proposed reasons.
It is important to note that income and wealth are two different things. Wealth is the total value of all an individual’s assets, and income is an addition to wealth. Williams chose to address income inequality because that gap has shortened, while the wealth gap has only increased. Choosing to ignore this detail further upholds white supremacy by erasing the past and ongoing struggle Black Americans endure. Of course, it is important to acknowledge how far we have come, but that does not mean that we can stop moving toward
Wealth and Inequality in America Inequality The inequality in America has increased over time; the gap between the rich and the poor has become a problem that many Americans don’t see. Inequality is the extent of income which is distributed unequally among the citizenry. The inequality of the United has a large gap between the poor and the rich making it unfair to the population, the rich are becoming wealthier and the poor remain poor. The article “Of the 1%, By the 1%, For the 1%”, authored by Joseph E. Stiglitz describes that there is a 1 percent amount of American’s who are consuming about a quarter of the United States income in a year.
