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 racial wealth divide is wealth and poverty created after World War II. When veterans returned home the FHA approved 98% (podcast, House Rule) of the mortgage to white people allowing them to buy lands, farms, properties, and houses. Helping building up the middle-class people by allowing them to get home ownership. They were approved for G.I. Bill to attend school and grants to start up small business. Meanwhile black veterans returned from war and was turned down for all the these benefits that left them remain in poverty.
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.
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
Without a doubt the wealth gap between the rich and the poor has continue to widen. In an article called “Fueled by Recession, U.S. Wealth Gap Is Widest in Decades, Study Finds” written by Patricia Cohen, point out the widening wealth gap between the upper-income compared to the middle-income and low-income. Essentially, upper income wealth has increased 101 percent; it was $318,000 in 1983 and increased to $639,400 in 2013. While low income has decreased 18.4 percent; it was $11,400 in 1983 and decreased to 9,300 in 2013. I think that the government should implement policies to reduce the inequality because it’s becoming an issue.
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).”
White Americans have about ten times more net worth than African Americans. Redlining and generational wealth lead us to this inequality. The following items will be covered in this essay ,such as redlining, generational wealth, and inequality to explain why white Americans have more net worth than black Americans. Redlining is the main cause of inequality today because it only gave money to the white population. Well then what is redlining?
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.
We have had numerous recessions which in turn makes matters worse as middle class working people lose their jobs or get paid less as a result of of this. When a group faces this kind of setback, it creates inequality in the country because not everyone suffers because of this, but not much is done to erase the issue. Most problems arise when the middle class is expected to pay a certain amount in taxes that could be beyondmeans while the 1% does not face the same issue. We saw this become a main concern in the 2016 election as some candidates wanted even lower taxes for the 1% in turn putting that burden on the middle class. When focussed more precisely, it becomes known of the wage gap between white workers and black or latin workers.
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).
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
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
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.
