New research from Yale University psychologists Jennifer Richeson and Michael Kraus demonstrates how many white and black Americans possess radically different perceptions -- and lived experiences -- on the economy, wealth and income. Americans, especially wealthy whites, vastly overestimate progress toward racial economic equality despite evidence of persistent gaps between black and white workers when it comes to hourly wages, annual income and household wealth by Yale University researchers published Monday. The study’s results are especially stunning in the wake of census data released last week that showed that African Americans were the only racial group still making less than they did in 2000.
On average, white Americans have 13 times more household wealth than blacks and 10 times more than Latinos.
New research from Prosperity Now and the Institute for Policy Studies predicts that by the year 2053, the household wealth of the median black family in America will be zero.
Social scientists estimate that it would take 228 years for black families to possess the same wealth in America that white families own today.
The race wealth gap becomes even more severe if cars are removed from the calculations as a household asset. In that scenario, white families have at least 69 times the wealth of the median black family.
On average, white Americans have 13 times more household wealth than blacks and 10 times more than Latinos.
New research from Prosperity Now and the Institute for Policy Studies predicts that by the year 2053, the household wealth of the median black family in America will be zero.
Social scientists estimate that it would take 228 years for black families to possess the same wealth in America that white families own today.
The race wealth gap becomes even more severe if cars are removed from the calculations as a household asset. In that scenario, white families have at least 69 times the wealth of the median black family.
The racial wealth gap in America is a predictable outcome and intentional result of federal, state and local policies that subsidized the creation of wealth and income for white America. (That history is detailed by Ira Katznelson in his excellent book "When Affirmative Action Was White.")
This racial wealth gap is also a consequence of housing segregation and racial discrimination against nonwhites in the labor market -- the latter of which is estimated to cost the U.S. economy at least $2 trillion a year.
And one cannot overlook how centuries of chattel slavery, followed by Jim and Jane Crow, created and amplified intergenerational wealth for white America from the exploited bodies of black and brown people.
Research has repeatedly shown that white Americans and people of color have radically different opinions and experiences on various matters: from policing, civil rights, the impact of racism on day-to-day life, the overall economy and "race relations" more generally.
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