As outlined in chapter 10 of the course text, inequality in housing and wealth is a major problem. The United States is described to be the most unequal countries in the western hemisphere. But with the inequalities when it comes to wealth, the United States is one of the richest countries in the world. Wealth is the sum total of a person’s assets. These assets include, cash in the bank and value of all properties, not only land but houses, cars, stocks, and bonds, and retirements savings. Wealth is one of the factors why residential segregation is an increasing problem. Golash- Boza explains, “Residential segregation happened when different groups of people are sorted into discount neighborhoods” (271). It is because of housing segregation …show more content…
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. It is explained that Whites are able to acquire homes earlier in life because they statistically face less obstacles than their Black counterparts. Since whites are able to acquire houses earlier in life than Blacks, they are also able to build home equity for long term home ownership as well as financial support from family members. The wage gap also widens by the fact that African Americans face discrimination from real estate agents who steal them towards black neighborhoods. The wealth gap between Blacks and Whites causes different opportunities for both parties. Wealth allows families to invest in their families futures such as higher education. Whites have better opportunities to provides their families with such resources compared to Blacks. It is up to the government to provide wealth generating programs to the less fortunate and under
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.
An article by Futurity.org declared “In 2010, median earnings for black males were 32 percent lower than median earnings for their white counterparts” and “The employment rate for African American men has been 11 to 15 percentage points lower than that for whites”(Martinovich). African Americans in our society today are challenged the inequality of being paid less than White men and having worse home conditions. Numerous people in the black community still struggle with trying to earn enough money to provide for their family and to earn enough money to live a decent life. Black people in today’s
I was surprise at the extent to which blacks were taken advantage of in the housing market. It was interesting how the author brought Obama’s family into his analysis. It is important to recognize that the first family does not represent the entire black population. They do not represent the typical situation for a black
For this week 's current events I an article read on the Huffington post that talks about the vast wealth gap between Black and White America. According to the post the gap got a bit smaller in the years leading upto the Great Recession but in the past 30 years has exploded as the black and Latino communities have been hit by foreclosures and job cuts. There 's a lot of reasons why there are enormous wealth gaps between minorities and whites in America. The most simple answer is, it takes money to make money. Part of the reason that there 's this enormous gap is because whites have long had higher wages and wealth to pass on from generation to generation.
In the United States, some factors of obtaining success in life can be determined by racial status and where they reside. Unfortunately, some minority groups do not get the opportunity to access the benefits of a stable community due to racial residential segregation. This process was created from racial prejudice to isolate minorities from white homeowners. Sociologists such as Gregory Squires, Charis E. Kubrin, and Camille Zubrinsky Charles have created theories to how segregation hurts the community. They discovered that its effects the communities social/ economic wealth and it mostly hurts the African American community.
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
During the 20th century, African American starting leaving the south. They left behind the racial segregation, discrimination, and violence in search of greater economic opportunity. This was the forming of the “Great Migration” of 1.5 million African Americans that happened between 1910 and 1945. Also another 6.5 million moved north and west between 1945 and 1970. Since the 1960’s, many black urban immigrants have achieved success where as some have been left behind.
This forced Blacks to rent homes which did not build equity or buy homes in low valued neighborhoods. Equity is the value of a house minus the amount owed to the bank for a loan. If property values goes up, a person owns more of their house than they did before. Equity is what allowed people to refinance their houses and get money in return . Equity was only available to Whites as only they could build equity in their houses and have this wealth which they could eventually pass on to their
This is referring to whites since the beginning of time having higher wages and passing down this accumulated wealth from generation to generation. This had begun after World War II when the government
Chelsea Nsonwu AFRI-L232 Response paper 2 African Diaspora in North America The purpose of the article is to revisit organizational themes and concepts used in previous chapters as a way to understand the multiple perspectives on experiences of the African Diaspora in America and Canada. There are two main themes in this article. The first theme is that the people in the African Diaspora are not homogenous and are extremely diverse in many ways. The second theme and main argument of the article is that the racial inequality imbedded in the history of Canada and America, effects and influences the well-being of black immigrants and native born black people in Canada and America.
According to various public policy organizations, the white-black economic disparity is so great, that neither a college degree, full time employment, fiscal literacy, thriftiness, or entrepreneurialism, eradicate impediments to the ‘American Dream’ for African American. None of it closes the widening racial wealth gap. None
Gentrification is a fast growing process in most cities today. Displacement through gentrification has many side effects for low-income families. Gentrification is a major problem; it is the displacement of people of lower socioeconomic status and replacing them with people of higher economic status, raising the property rates on these gentrified properties so that the lower classes can no longer afford to live there and further creating social inequality among the citizens of our community. We take broken parts of town and convert them into lavish attractions for visitors and natives. These so-called broken parts of town have residents who can no longer afford to live in these parts.
gap increases going down the economic profile, where a black family has a mere two percent in wealth compared to a white family. In order for America to overcome this racial gap, the wealth divide must be narrowed. There are many reasons contributing to higher African American unemployment rates. One important factor that plays role in high unemployment is higher crime rates among blacks. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one in three black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetime (“Addressing Chronic Black Male Unemployment."
This cultural belief in the value of home ownership as a symbol of both individual and neighborhood stability, it also gives people the perception that renters are an indicator of social disorganization. While sociologists have examined changes in urban areas where overall neighborhood decline, which included decreased homeownership rates, the recent mortgage collapse in the United States home ownership in traditionally moderate and low-income neighborhoods is being reduced (Kremer p. 174). Since low and moderate income homeowners find themselves in the most dangerous situation in terms of foreclosure and during economic downturns, these neighborhoods are the first to reflect overall changes in homeownership. Data suggests a growth in both
Introduction All over the world, there is an obvious contrast between the living standards and lifestyle of the rich and the poor. Moreover, there is a large gap between the populations of poor and wealthy. This is known as the Wealth Gap, and it is caused by Wealth Inequality. Wealth Income/Inequality is defined as “The unequal distribution of assets within a population.” Wealth is defined as more than just the amount of income a person has, but instead the value of a person’s assets.