Despite overwhelming evidence that the racial wealth gap persists in the U.S., it remains a taboo topic in mainstream policy circles and most officials studiously avoid offering targeted solutions to help close this gap. However, this issue is ignored at our nation’s peril given the anticipated growth of racial and ethnic groups over the next few decades.
This report, “Beyond Broke: Why Closing the Racial Wealth Gap is a Priority for National Economic Security,” uses the most recently available data from the U. S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) along with the National Asset Scorecard in Communities of Color (NASCC) in order to highlight the current state of America’s racial wealth gap. With these tools, we provide an in-depth analysis of housing wealth and liquid wealth, while also evaluating how wealth disparities manifest across racial and ethnic categories and within racial and ethnic subpopulations in four geographically diverse U.S. cities.
The report findings include:
- Between 2005 and 2011, the median net worth of households of color remained near their 2009 levels, reflecting a drop of 58 percent for Latinos, 48 percent for Asians, 45 percent for African Americans but only 21 percent for whites.
- Asians and Latinos are twice as likely to live in a state hardest hit by the housing crisis.
- Hispanic households experienced the largest drop in net worth following the recession.
- More than half of whites own four or more tangible assets, compared to 49 percent of Asians and only one in five of African Americans and Latinos.
- For most African Americans and Latinos, checking accounts are their only liquid asset.
- African Americans (38 percent) and Latinos (35 percent) are over twice as likely as whites (13 percent) to hold no financial assets at all and to have no or negative net worth.
Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Center for Global Policy Solutions Beyond Broke: Why Closing the Racial Wealth Gap is a Priority for National Economic Security – Center for Global Policy Solutions.
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