Recession Has Hit Minorities Harder Than Whites

The Pew Research Center has done a very interesting survey. They compared government data from 2005 with newly released government data from 2009 (after the recession hit), and they found that when the average income of different groups are compared, the recession has hit minority groups much harder than it has hit whites as a whole.

Even before the recession whites were average a much larger net worth than other groups (except for Asians). Here's how the average wealth stood back in 2005:

Asians...............$168,103
Whites...............$134,992
Hispanics...............$18,359
African-Americans...............$12, 124

But the recession has radically changed those averages. Here is what they now look like:

Whites...............$113,149 (a drop of 16%)
Asians...............$78,066 (a drop of 54%)
Hispanics...............$6,325 (a drop of 66%)
African-Americans...............$5,677 (a drop of 53%)

This does not mean that the recession has not hurt whites at all. Those who have lost jobs have been severely hurt. What it really means is that there are enough whites in the wealthy class (who are doing very well) to keep the average up while poor and working class whites are sliding downhill like the other groups. It also means there weren't enough rich people among the other groups to keep their average up.

If it occurs to you that this means there is not only a huge disparity between the rich and the working class, but there is still a huge disparity between the races -- then you are absolutely right. That racial disparity existed before the recession hit, but the recession has made it far worse.

This is just more evidence that America is not only in a "post-racial" period in our history, but we are not even close to anything like that. If race no longer mattered in America then all of the groups should have suffered the same, including whites. That did not happen. Minorities have suffered more -- even Asians. This is also born out by the fact that whites have a smaller unemployment rate than minorities (although the rate for everyone is too high).

This might make some on the right believe that most of the poor are minorities. That has never been true and still isn't. The majority of the poor are white, just as it has always been. The minority groups are smaller, and as I said, don't have large numbers among the wealthy.

My point in this post is that there are two drivers of wealth inequality in this country. One is class and the other is race (or ethnicity), and both are contributing to the huge gap among the rich and poor in this country -- a gap that not only was the primary cause of the recession, but keeps everyone but the rich in recession.

This recession will not truly be over until there is massive job creation and a more equal wealth distribution -- and it must extend to all races and ethnicities. Government cuts are not the answer. That will only cause the economy to shrink and extend the recession (and the hurt). We need massive spending to create jobs, and we need to make sure that minorities get a good share of those jobs. And we need a significant tax raise for the rich and corporations to help pay for it. That's the only real solution.