CounterPunch, October 25, 2019: The Racial Wealth Divide Hurts the Entire Middle Class
Americans are more aware than ever that America has a race problem — and, more specifically, a racial wealth divide problem. As researchers from the Institute for Policy Studies and I found earlier this year, median White families are 41 times wealthier than median Black families in the United States.
As our country becomes more diverse, this shocking racial wealth divide is no longer a challenge for disenfranchised minorities alone. It’s a threat to the entire American middle class.
Let me show you how.
Since the early 1980s, median wealth among Black and Latino families has been stuck at less than $10,000, while median White wealth has grown to $140,000. Yet in spite of this growing White wealth, this huge divide means that national median wealth has actually declined.
The racial wealth divide, in short, is weakening our country as a whole.
