Wealth Gap Among Races Widened Since Recession

[alp227]

Source: NY Times

Millions of Americans suffered a loss of wealth during the recession and the sluggish recovery that followed. But the last half-decade has proved far worse for black and Hispanic families than for white families, starkly widening the already large gulf in wealth between white Americans and most minority groups, according to a new study from the Urban Institute.

“It was already dismal,” Darrick Hamilton, a professor at the New School in New York, said of the wealth gap between black and white households. “It got even worse.”

Given the dynamics of the housing recovery and the rebound in the stock market, the wealth gap might still be growing, experts said, further dimming the prospects for economic advancement for current and future generations of Americans from minority groups.

The Urban Institute study found that the racial wealth gap yawned during the recession, even as the income gap between white Americans and nonwhite Americans remained stable. As of 2010, white families, on average, earned about $2 for every $1 that black and Hispanic families earned, a ratio that has remained roughly constant for the last 30 years. But when it comes to wealth — as measured by assets, like cash savings, homes and retirement accounts, minus debts, like mortgages and credit card balances — white families have far outpaced black and Hispanic ones. Before the recession, white families, on average, were about four times as wealthy as nonwhite families, according to the Urban Institute’s analysis of Federal Reserve data. By 2010, whites were about six times as wealthy.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/business/racial-wealth-gap-widened-during-recession.html?pagewanted=all

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Study should be available on Urban.org.

[dkf]

1. Why are Asians never discussed?

[antigone382]

3. Generally speaking, Asians do as well as whites, and by some indicators, slightly better.

In my sociology courses we have looked at the statistics for Asians, and by most economic and educational indicators, such as income, graduation rates, highest completed level of education, etc., Asians are on par with or slightly better than whites. This of course doesn't mean that all Asians are well off, anymore than it means that all whites are well off. It's just that, speaking in terms of general racial demographics, Blacks and Hispanics are very far behind, and to a very stark degree.

This also doesn't mean that Asians don't suffer the real consequences of discrimination and minority status, it is just a different sort of effect.

[Igel]

4. Because that's not a category they want included..

The usual breakdown is white vs. people of color. The entire narrative is based on racism and injustice, and it's important to make sure that the lines are clear: European-Americans vs others.

Asians are people of color. Most are fairly recent immigrants. If they're doing as well economically as whites, then there are immigrants of color who have come here and "beat" the system. Or, perhaps, have become part of the system.

After that the discourse becomes complicated, messy, possibly offensive and generally unpleasant.

[Nye Bevan]

5. Because the data doesn't fit the approved narrative.

You can be sure that if Asian-Americans were languishing in poverty the NY Times would never shut up about them.

[kelliekat44]

2. Why is this surprising news. The white power structure hold the wealth and access in their hands

and only fairly participate in the economic system (designed by them) when forced to by strict enforcement of anti-discrimination laws and affirmative action laws. Affirmative action has been chipped away by the courts since the late 1960's and unions (the last bastion of workplace and workforce fairness) have been successfully ignored as their demise is effected by the RW/GOP Congressional hold. It will take at least another 20-30 years for this to change...if ever.