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Racial Wealth Inequality

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Racial Wealth Gap in America Inequality is by no means a new concept within America; from slavery, discrimination, and prejudice, the United States has been quite a playing ground for social inequality. Although slavery was officially abolished in December 1865(“America”), its influence on the U.S. continues to ring through society. Specifically in the case of racial wealth disparity, White Americans continue to hold benefits and privileges that are not given to African Americans. This has left an uneven distribution of wealth between the two. This racial wealth disparity between White Americans and African Americans is reflected through the median of accumulated household wealth and a lack of opportunities for African Americans in the job …show more content…

The graph notes that in 2011 the median white household held an average of $111,146 in accumulated wealth holdings, compared to the median black household that only accumulated an average of $7,113 wealth holdings (Traub and Ruetschlin). Thus, highlighting the obvious disparity of wealth in the United States between the two which reveals an unmistakable social inequality. As from the statistics noted on the graph, black households are shown to only hold six percent of the wealth owned by the white households leaving them at a great disadvantage as the wealth gap between the black household and the white household on average had a wealth disparity of $104,033 (Traub and Ruetschlin). Hence, in 2011 for every $15.63 a typical white family owned as an accumulation of wealth in the U.S., a typical black family only owned $1 (Traub and Ruetschlin). Consequently, demonstrating the uneven distribution of wealth within the United States. As the privileged white families reap the benefit of this unequal system that allows them essentially to move forward in their accumulation of wealth at an increased pace than the disadvantaged black families that fall victim to this …show more content…

As through stats, the increasing graduation rate of African Americans only reduces the racial wealth disparity between White Americans and African Americans by 1 percent (McElwee). Moreover, African Americans also seem to experience discrimination in the labor market after graduation that is not experienced by White Americans (McElwee). Therefore, restricting them from fully attaining the benefits that come with higher education to increase their wealth as they often find it hard to get employed due to racial biases and prejudice views that prevents them from gaining lots of opportunities within the job market. Further reiterating that education alone does not determine one’s wealth as there are certain factors such as discrimination within the racial wealth gap that continually leaves one group at a disadvantage while another continues to reap the

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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.

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“The intent behind closing these gaps is to break the connection between race or family income and achievement while at the same time continuing to improve the performance of the top students. ”(28) Gaps between race and wealth have always been issues in schools. Historically, children living in poverty are more likely to score lower on tests than those

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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.

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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.

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This kind of system where people of higher social status (wealthy) not only limits resources but restricts opportunities for those of a lower status (poverty) who are already at a disadvantage. In this case, minorities such as African-Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans. John Iceland states, “Economists have estimated that perhaps one-quarter of the black-white gap is due to prejudice, suggesting that racism continues to contribute to African-American economic disadvantage” (Iceland 92). There have been studies that showed discrimination still occurred in the labor markets. In particular, a case where minorities applied for the same job as whites.

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While comparing the white verse African American populations in Birmingham in regards to economic inequality, income disparities become even more apparent. Economic inequality is a form of whitewashed

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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.

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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).

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To some the American dream seems out of reach Race, economic background and where you live play a role in economic mobility. According to CNN in 2010 white Americans have 22 times more wealth then blacks and 15 times more than Hispanics. (Cefferty, jack)This statistic from 2010 is showing that white Americans have a higher

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There are still factors that have only been erased on the surface but still play a large role in the way that people of color are treated in America, and dictate to a certain extent, compromise the “freedom” that people have. On the other hand, we have white America, who have heightened chances of achieving anything that they please. This does not apply to every white American, as there are also white Americans who are living on or below the poverty line, and much like everybody else must put in a lot of effort to reach certain heights, however they have an advantage over all other denomination of people known as “white privilege” which are the societal benefits that people who can be categorized as “white” enjoy over the rest of the population and in the end, have a higher social status. Ultimately, people of color must work harder, and face many more setbacks in their climb to success than white Americans do, which is not fair,

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