Racial Wealth And Income Disparity

For more than a couple of hundred years now the people of the United States have been striving to live up to the lofty words of the Declaration of Independence -- that "all men are created equal". But we have yet to succeed. And nowhere is that more apparent than in economic equality among the races and ethnic groups. I'm not talking about a society where everybody makes the same salary and has the same wealth, but a society where there is equality of opportunity and the huge disparity in incomes and wealth are lessened as everyone has that opportunity to better themselves.

It has been a hard struggle to establish equal opportunity for minorities. First, there was slavery, and once that was eliminated there were the Jim Crow laws and segregation and the "good old boy network". The good and high-paying jobs were reserved for whites, while minorities were allowed only to take those jobs even poor whites didn't want. This began to change in the sixties as Jim Crow and segregation were outlawed, and affirmative action opened up education and job opportunities for minorities. Real progress started to be made.

But then the Republican "trickle-down" caused recession hit, and while everyone (but the rich) was hurt, no one was hurt more than minorities. African-Americans and Hispanics lost a much bigger percentage of their overall wealth and jobs -- and they have not recovered. The chart above, from the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer Finances, gives us an idea of the disparity of income and wealth between the races (before the recession hit).

Frankly, those numbers are shocking -- and shameful. And as I said, the disparity has just gotten worse since the recession hit. We should do better than this. No, we MUST do better than this! The time for racism has passed, and we must bury it for good. We have some lofty words and goals to live up to, and that can't be done without insuring all Americans have an equal opportunity to education, jobs, promotions, and a decent standard of living. We must redouble our efforts and settle for nothing less.