The Recession Hurt Minorities More Than Whites In U.S.

These charts come from a new report compiled by the Pew Research Center (using the Survey of Consumer Finances public-use data). It shows that while the Bush Recession in the latter days of 2007 hurt everyone, it hurt minorities more than Whites -- and while Whites have begun to recover some of their lost wealth, both Blacks and Hispanics continue to see their median wealth decline.

The median wealth is the point at which half of the group will have more and half will have less, and is a better measure than average wealth (since that figure can be skewed by the very wealthy).

Another way to look at wealth among the races is to look at the ration between the wealthiest group (Whites) and other groups (Blacks and Hispanics). Note that before the recession the median wealth of Whites was 10 times as much as the median wealth of Blacks, and 8.2 times the median wealth of Hispanics. That ration has grown worse. By 2013, the median wealth of Whites was 12.9 times as much as the median wealth of Blacks, and 10.3 times as much as the median wealth of Hispanics.

This does not means there aren't any poor Whites in the United States. There are millions of them, and they need help as much as anyone to survive this still faltering economy. But as a group, Blacks and Hispanics had less wealth and they have been hurt more by the recession -- and they continue to fall further behind. That is just a fact, and we need to recognize it. And it will not be cured by cutting government help to those struggling, and giving more to the rich and the corporations.