Despite increases in Black business ownership, elected office, and university enrollment, a new study indicates that the wealth disparity between U.S. Blacks and Whites has been widening.
The alarming report, whose findings prove the economic racial divide has not lessened since Jim Crow, is the result of a study by The Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan think tank. Titled “Systematic Inequality: How America’s Structural Racism Helped Create the Black-White Wealth Gap,” the study cites elements of systemic U.S. racism such as slavery, racial segregation, housing discrimination and criminal justice biases as helping to create and perpetuate persistent wealth disparities.
The study found that the average Black household has a net worth of only one-tenth of its White counterpart, the gap has not narrowed since the financial meltdown of 2007-2008, and as African-Americans near retirement age, the gap actually widens between them and middle-aged and senior Whites.
Other major findings in the study report:
· In 2016, the median wealth for Black families was $17,600 compared to $171,000 for White households (and $20,700 for Hispanic families).
· In 1998, Blacks aged 32 to 47 were worth 24% of equally aged Whites.
· As the two groups age and advance in their respective careers, the gap widens. Today, U.S. Blacks aged 50 to 65 have a net worth equal to 10 percent of their White counterparts.
