TALKING POINTS: RACIAL WEALTH GAP

Incomes have increased among both black and white families in the past three decades, mainly because more women are in the workforce.

Incomes among black men have actually declined in the past three decades, but these declines were offset by gains among black women.

Generational transfer of wealth: Nearly half of African Americans born to middle-income parents in the late 1960s plunged into poverty or near-poverty as adults.

The wealth gap separating white and black families of similar incomes is vast: for every $10 of wealth a white person has, African-American families have $1.

Pew Charitable Trust Economic Mobility Project

While white households experienced an average increase in income of over $20,000 between 1974 and 1994, African-American and Latino median household income lagged far behind that of whites at each measurement point, and increased to a smaller degree than for white households. By 2004, the black-white income gap was more than $20,000, with the Latino-white gap not far behind.

Lost Opportunity by Alan Jenkins

• Although rates of drug use are roughly equal among African Americans and whites, extreme laws addressing drug related and nonviolent crimes have disproportionately affected African Americans; between 1990 and 2000, the number of African Americans incarcerated in state prisons for drug offenses increased by over 80 percent, to 145,000, a number that is 2.5 times higher than that for whites.
• A 2000 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development study found that whites were favored over similarly qualified African Americans in rental housing 22 percent of the time. In housing sales— traditional steppingstone to the middle class— received favorable treatment over African Americans 17 percent of the time.
• A study that assessed whether a criminal record would damage job chances found that white applicants with criminal records were more likely to receive callbacks from employers than African Americans who did not have criminal records.
• A study by the Boston Federal Reserve Bank found that, even after controlling for a variety of applicant, loan, and property characteristics, the rejection rate for African-American and Hispanic applicants was 82 percent higher than for white applicants.

Whole Story on Race by Alan Jenkins

Opportunity Agenda's State of Opportunity Report