The burden of race and racism in America. Racial disparities in income and generational wealth are among the most visible and persistent features of American society.
The defining feature of the American Dream is upward mobility – the aspiration that all children have a chance at economic success, no matter their background. However, there are substantial barriers to economic opportunity that prevent Americans, specifically Black males, from rising out of poverty and achieving better life outcomes. “Black and white boys have very different economic outcomes even if they grow up in two-parent families with comparable incomes, education, and wealth, live on the same city block, and attend the same school,” according to the Equality of Opportunity Project.
In 99% of neighborhoods in the United States, black boys earn less in adulthood than white boys who grow up in families with comparable income.
Black boys raised in America, even in the wealthiest families and living in some of the most well-to-do neighborhoods, still earn less in adulthood than white boys with similar backgrounds, according to a sweeping new study that traced the lives of millions of children.
White boys who grow up rich are likely to remain that way. Black boys raised at the top, however, are more likely to become poor than to stay wealthy in their own adult households.
According to the study, led by researchers at Stanford, Harvard and the Census Bureau, income inequality between blacks and whites is driven entirely by what is happening among these boys and the men they become. Though black girls and women face deep inequality on many measures, black and white girls from families with comparable earnings attain similar individual incomes as adults.
African-Americans made up about 35 percent of all children raised in the bottom 1 percent of the income distribution. They made up less than 1 percent of the children at the very top. White children are more likely to start life with economic advantages. But we now know that even when they start with the same advantages as black children, white boys still fare better, only reinforcing the disparities seen here.
In reality, whites and blacks are not represented equally across the income spectrum. More than two-thirds of black boys are raised by poor or lower-middle-class families, while more than half of white boys are raised by rich or upper-middle-class families.
The most promising pathways to reducing the black-white income gap are efforts such as mentoring programs for black boys, efforts to reduce racial bias among whites, interventions to reduce discrimination in criminal justice, and efforts to facilitate greater interaction across racial groups.
Essentially, society needs to create the same opportunities for black men to thrive as you see for white men. That would involve things like mentoring programs, reducing racial bias, creating more racial integration within schools and within neighborhoods, so black and white kids have similar opportunities.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/19/upshot/race-class-white-and-black-men.html
Source:
- “Race and Economic Opportunity in the United States: An Intergenerational Perspective” by Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, Maggie R. Jones and Sonya R. Porter; the Equality of Opportunity Project.
- https://opportunityinsights.org/race/
- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/black-men-face-economic-disadvantages-even-if-they-start-out-in-wealthier-households-new-study-shows