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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsInequality in Black and White (the economic aspects of racism)
The economic trends that have battered Americans have been exceptionally hard on African Americans, making them perhaps the truest face of economic inequality. Much of the progress in the workplace and in schools that African Americans have made since the 1964 Civil Rights Act has now ground to a halt, or worse. Blacks are nearly three times as likely to be poor as whites and more than twice as likely to be unemployed. Compared to whites with the same qualifications, blacks remain less likely to be hired and more likely to earn lower wages, to be charged higher prices for consumer goods, to be excluded from housing in white neighborhoods, and to be denied mortgages or steered into the subprime mortgage market. Racial disparities in household wealth haven’t just persisted; they’ve increased. What’s more, the reasons for these divergences aren’t always outwardly apparent or easy to understand.
1. INHERITED WEALTH IS A MAJOR DIVIDER
The economist Thomas Piketty has shown that the growing concentration of inherited wealth is a huge driver of economic inequality. This trend shakes out especially badly for African Americans. When the researchers Robert Avery and Michael Rendall looked at inherited wealth across three generations of Americans, they found a substantial gap between blacks and whites. What was especially troubling was that, contrary to narratives of racial progress, the gap was even larger for the Baby Boomer generation than for earlier generations. Inheritance disparities, write Avery and Rendall, “threaten to become a source not merely of slowed convergence in economic status, but of divergence in overall economic status between black and white Americans.”
2. RACIAL DISCRIMINATION HAS GOTTEN SNEAKIER
Most Americans now repudiate overt forms of discrimination. But “implicit prejudice” is still rampant, according to a 2008 paper. In personal interactions, the economic lives of black Americans are still marred by “forms of racial bias that operate without conscious awareness yet can influence cognition, affect, and behavior.” And on the institutional level, structural sources of discrimination remain; policies that seem race neutral today can systematically disadvantage those who suffered under race-based policies in the past. Together, these more subtle forms of discrimination leave blacks at a major disadvantage in employment, housing, credit, and consumer markets. And because modern forms of discrimination tend to be less visible, they can be more difficult to remedy.
Full article: http://www.psmag.com/business-economics/the-rigged-economics-of-race-in-america
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appalachiablue
(43,597 posts)the F-I-R-E industry for subprime mortgages that were sometimes promoted in communities through 'wealth seminars'. Yet after the 2008 Crash some in the finance industry tried to claim they were only trying to correct the discriminatory policy of redlining in housing for minorities especially by the evil government. This has further damaged the long historical mistreatment of blacks in particular. The evidence is clear that this country has been on a destructive path for American workers for over 30 years and still counting.
Number23
(24,544 posts)Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Adrahil
(13,340 posts)Maybe in the underlying studies?
For example, I'd like to see class thrown in there. I have no doubt racial disparities are increasing, but so is class disparity. And more white people are in the top quintile (by proportion) than black people. Does the increase in disparity track class, or is there some independence?
And incarceration rates. So the close relatives of someone incarcerated is more likely to be incarcerated themselves? Duh! That's no surprise. When I as a teen, there was a family I knew (we'll call them the Redneckersons) who took turns going to prison. There was definitely a cultural issue in that family. You have to break the cultural chain so that people can see another alternative. It isn't just about jail time, but about opportunity.
It's hard to tell if these are just shitty studies, or if we're not getting the details.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Kind if like "All lives matter", eh?
Adrahil
(13,340 posts)but rather socio-economic class. White people are only relevant to me in that case in that they tend the skew the socio-economic class distribution. That is, black Americans are more likely to of a lower socioeconomic class. What is relevant to me here is the interaction of class and race. Are black people more likely to incarcerated than other people of the same socioeconomic class, for example.
Again, this isn't about white people, but whether the dominant influence factor is race or class. Knowing that helps drive solutions.
Sheesh, can't say anything around here without someone jumping on you like you're some kind of reactionary freeper.