Introduction
The concept of generational wealth can be understood through delving deeper into the issue of the racial wealth gap between the Black and White community. In contrast between Black and White folks’ wealth, we find a great amount of racial disparity at the disadvantage of the Black community and its access to equal opportunity amongst the general population. As of 2016, “the net worth of a typical White family is nearly ten times greater, at $171,000 than that of a Black family, at $17,150”. The wealth gap between Black and White households can be traced back to the nation’s origins built upon a clear difference in positions of power and opportunity amongst both communities. The Black community’s journey towards generational wealth has directly been affected by the general accumulation of inequality and discrimination experienced. Black folks’ chance at accumulating such wealth has been impeded by events rooted in history including the “246 years of chattel slavery, Freedman’s Savings Bank, discriminatory policies within the Jim Crow era also known as the “Black Codes”, etc.”
Importance
The Black community is still reaping the effects of American history and its mistreatment/ongoing discrimination towards Black people. Brookings covers a variety of reasons as to why such racial wealth gaps may exist which include that White families are bound to receive much larger inheritances, the lifetime income of Black households may not fully be captured, and high and middle-income Black families are more likely than White families with the same income to be called upon to assist other family members/neighbors. All of these suggestions are evident of how the Black community faces racial disparity in wealth due to high levels of discrimination and our system being rooted in White supremacy. Merrill conducted a study on the basis of “how common experiences shape the Black community’s financial goals, concerns, and aspirations” that found that over the past five years, there “has been a 65% increase in the number of affluent Black/African-American households, compared to 53% for the general population”. This racial wealth gap is still evident today because in the most recent economic turndown, Black families’ net worth declined by more at 44.3% decline from 2007-2013 in comparison to that of White families at a 26.1% decline.
Misconceptions and Conclusion
Some may believe that racial gaps, especially those regarding wealth levels, do not exist. In Neil Lewis Jr.’s FiveThirtyEight article on “Why Many Americans Can’t See the Wealth Gap Between White and Black America”, he discusses “the nature of segregation in the U.S. meaning that some may only end up seeing and learning about what their own groups experience, making it hard to understand the lives of people outside of their own group”. We must understand the ongoing racial disparities faced by the Black community and how such discrimination is rooted within the origins of race and racism.