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> >> Black Agenda Report/ Glen Ford >> Massive Race Divide: Blacks Will Never Gain Wealth Equality With Whites >> Under the Current System >> A new study shows African Americans are tumbling out of the nation's >> economic orbit on a tragic trajectory that will never let them achieve >> parity with whites. >> >> < >> http://www.alternet.org/story/146966/massive_race_divide%3A_blacks_will_never_gain_wealth_equality_with_whites_under_the_current_system?page=entire >> > >> >> The gap between Black and white household [accumulated] wealth quadrupled >> from 1984 to 2007, totally discrediting the conventional wisdom that the >> U.S. is slowly and fitfully moving towards racial equality, or some rough >> economic parity between the races. Like most American myths, it’s the direct >> opposite of the truth. When measured over decades, Blacks are being >> propelled economically downward relative to whites at quickening speed, >> according to a new study by Brandeis >> University.<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/17/white-people-95000-richer-black> >> >> The gap between Black and white households ballooned during the 23-year >> study period, as white families went from a median of about $22,000 in >> wealth to $100,000 – a gain of $78,000. In the same period, Black household >> wealth inched up from a base of $2,000 per family to only $5,000. The sweat >> and toil of an entire generation had netted Black families only $3,000 >> additional dollars, while white families emerged from the period with a net >> worth of 100 grand that can be used to send a couple of kids to college, >> make investments, help out other family members, or contribute to the larger >> (white) community. The typical Black family has no such options. [The study >> did not take property ownership into account. If property were included, the >> disparity would be larger.] >> >> Viewed another way, the median white family was 11 times richer than the >> median Black family in 1984 ($2,000 vs. $22,000). By 2007, the white >> household had become 20 times richer than its Black counterpart ($5,000 vs. >> $100,000). >> >> Any way one measures it, the numbers show African Americans are tumbling >> out of the nation’s economic orbit, wealth-wise, on a trajectory that can >> never achieve parity with whites. I repeat: never. >> >> On the campaign trail in 2007, Barack Obama flippantly declared that >> African Americans had “already come 90 percent of the way” to equality, with >> only 10 percent more to go. Whatever the future president was thinking, it >> wasn’t economics. The meter of progress is running backwards on Black >> America, toward greater inequality and relative poverty. Everything else >> you’ve heard is propaganda. >> >> The Brandeis study, conducted by the university’s Institute on Assets and >> Social Policy, showed that upper income Blacks fell even farther behind >> their white peers than lower income Blacks. During the survey period, higher >> income Blacks saw their wealth drop from $25,000 to just $18,000, while >> their white counterparts wealth soared to $240,000. >> >> Black folks have been integrated long enough to know that the white family >> didn’t get richer by a quarter million dollars because they were smarter >> than the Black family. Privilege, especially cumulative privilege over >> generations, works wonders, like compound interest only better. Whites are >> both collectively privileged and capable of bestowing an endless stream of >> privileges on each other, while Blacks are deliberately positioned outside >> of the stream, and are preyed upon as a group by powerful (white) financial >> forces that profit from the wealth differential. >> >> The Brandies report recognizes the “powerful role of persistent >> discrimination in housing, credit and labor markets” – that is, the >> institutionally racist crimes of finance capital. Had the survey continued >> past 2007, the carnage of the Great Recession would have revealed even more >> dramatically the incredibly shrinking nature of Black wealth in the current >> era. >> >> Enemies of all colors and sly servants of the rich will use the news of >> the evaporation of African American wealth to heap blame on Black “culture.” >> This “shaming” strategy is designed to keep Blacks looking inward for the >> source of their woes, and to simultaneously despair of finding salvation in >> our own capacity for group agency. Meanwhile, the Lords of Capital devour us >> like piranhas – quicker than they do whites, who are padded with the fat of >> relative privilege – $95,000 worth of it, the racial wealth spread of 23 >> years. >> >> Although Black parity with whites has never been on the horizon, impatient >> whites have insisted since 1969 or thereabouts that “it’s time” African >> Americans were made to “stand or fall” on their own, minus all the imagined >> assistance Blacks have supposedly received from phantom federal and state >> agencies. After all, say the anxious whites, how long is society (meaning >> themselves) supposed to pay for the slavery and segregation of the past? >> Most white folks – and President Obama – believe, or pretend to believe, >> that whatever legitimate grievances Blacks might harbor against the United >> States stem from circumstances deep in the past. The only question is, when >> will Blacks finally “get over it?” >> >> The Brandies study shows that the racial wealth gap, although historically >> rooted in slavery and Jim Crow oppressions, has grown dramatically under >> post-civil rights era conditions. The gap is not simply a legacy of some >> ancient American apartheid, but a product of the recent past and of the >> present. This is a different paradigm, entirely, in which past racial wrongs >> are compounded by additional layers of institutionalized anti-Black behavior >> in the 1980s, 90s and in the 21st century –wounds so harmful they set >> African Americans on a backward course in terms of wealth accumulation. >> >> In 2004, United for a Fair Economy came out with the first of its annual >> “State >> of the Dream <http://www.faireconomy.org/dream>” reports. Readers were >> shocked out of complacency by data that showed Blacks would not reach wealth >> parity with whites until the year 2099. It was surely a bummer to realize >> that no one then alive would see the “promised land” of evenly matched Black >> and white median household wealth. But at least the study indicated that >> “we, as a people” would eventually get there, as someone famous once >> predicted. There are no such condolences in the Brandies data. At the rate >> Blacks have been falling behind in wealth since the mid-80s, the Black and >> white median paths will diverge ever farther, never to connect under this >> system of economic and political rule. Blacks cannot shop or invest or save >> or borrow our way to a just society. Social justice and true human equality >> can only be achieved through our collective political action in opposition >> to the current order – by any means necessary, as another famous man once >> urged. >> >> >> > > ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
