Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Black, White & Latino Wealth Gap in the United States...


Race the Power of an Illusion: Video 1, mentioned the Black / white wealth gap.  In the video the said the average white family has 8 times the net worth of the average Black family.  It has actually gotten much worse since the video was produced as you will see in the articles below.

Remember, this is about net worth NOT just income.  It is a family's total accumulated wealth including things like inherited wealth, the value of their home, etc.  As we have discussed, this single statistics tells us more about the continuing racial divide in our society than any other fact.  In the video series Race the Power of an Illusion, produced in the early 2000s, the Black / White wealth gap was 8 times (the average white family had 8 times the wealth of the average Black family).  I mentioned that the statistic was out of date and that after the great recession which began in 2008, things had gotten worse.  The two articles below illustrate just how much worse the situation has become.

Please read both articles carefully and respond on your own blog.  Try to answer these questions in your posts...

1. Why decades after the success of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's, do we still have such a racial divide in America?

2. What do we need to do to try to change this situation?  What type of transformation is needed?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/04/30/179907029/what-do-we-do-about-americas-racial-wealth-gap

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/07/26/wealth-gaps-rise-to-record-highs-between-whites-blacks-hispanics/

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