Page 6
August 17, 2016
O PINION
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Wealth Divide Nothing Short of Shocking
Understanding
history of racial
discrimination
d edriCk a Sante -m uhammad
C huCk C ollinS
Most media coverage of ra-
cial injustice has understand-
ably focused on our country’s
unfair policing and criminal
justice system. But to fully un-
derstand the current reality of
racial inequality in America, we
also need to take an honest look
at our nation’s shocking wealth
disparities.
Wealth — the total assets a
family owns after the bills are
by
and
paid — is the safety net we all
need to help us get through the
tough times and invest in our fu-
tures. And its polarization along
racial lines is striking.
The average wealth for
white households is $656,000.
For Latinos it’s $98,000, and
for black households it’s just
$85,000. The average wealth of
black and Latinos combined still
doesn’t come close to half of
white wealth.
And while white wealth con-
tinues to grow substantially, any
gains in black and Latino wealth
pale in comparison. Current es-
timates show that if nothing
changes, the racial wealth divide
will grow to $1 million by 2043.
In fact, it’ll take the average
black family 228 years to ac-
crue the same amount of wealth
that white families have today.
That’s just 17 years shorter than
the centuries-long institution of
slavery in the U.S. For Latinos,
it’ll take 84 years to reach aver-
age white wealth today.
Generations of racial discrim-
ination in programs like hous-
ing and government benefits are
now reflected in dismal bank
statements and paltry retirement
funds for blacks and Latinos.
In particular, racial bias in
mortgage lending — known as
redlining — has consistently
barred communities of color from
the wealth-building train, result-
ing in low homeownership rates.
After World War II, for exam-
ple, predominately white fam-
ilies received government-sub-
sidized mortgages that allowed
them to purchase homes, while
black families didn’t. The result
has played out over generations:
Today, more than 70 percent of
whites own homes, compared
with only 41 percent of blacks
and 45 percent of Latinos.
For many blacks and Latinos,
a lack of assets has contribut-
ed to economic insecurity and
sometimes-heartbreaking rever-
sals of fortune. This explains
the dizzying disparities in retire-
ment savings: The average white
household in the U.S. today has
$130,000 in retirement funds,
while average black and Latino
households have $19,000 and
$12,300, respectively.
The
younger
generation
isn’t doing any better. College
debt is rising for all races, and
nearly half the workforce earns
less than $15 an hour — barely
enough to pay the bills.
The structures in place driving
these inequalities, like tax cuts
for the wealthy and global trade
deals that drive down wages, am-
plify existing racial wealth divi-
sions. They pit low-wage work-
ers of all races against each other,
leaving us vulnerable to the poli-
tics of blame and deflection.
The good news is we can re-
verse these trends through public
policies that both reduce overall
inequality and close the racial
wealth divide.
First, we should fix the up-
side-down system of tax incen-
tives that currently flows almost
exclusively to wealthy house-
holds. We should redirect the
$650 billion a year Congress
allocates in tax subsidies to sup-
port first-time homebuyers and
first-generation college students.
Additionally,
taxing
multi-million dollar inheritanc-
es and investing in tuition-free
higher education are approaches
that can expand wealth and op-
portunity for everyone.
We can reverse the racial
wealth divide if we understand
our history of racial discrimi-
nation and press lawmakers to
stand on the side of opportunity,
not inequality.
Dedrick Asante-Muhammed
directs the Racial Wealth Divide
Initiative at the Corporation for
Enterprise Development. Chuck
Collins is a senior scholar at
Institute for Policy Studies. Dis-
tributed by OtherWords.org.
Connected to Young Africans for Life
Forging deep
connections at
Portland State
The opening ceremony, some
weeks ago, featured some of the
world’s best drummers—Gha-
naian—and the usual welcomes
from university officials. Then
came the opening address by one
of the cohort at Portland
by t om h. h aStinGS
State University, a young
Recently I have had
man—not even 30 yet—
the great privilege to
from Sierra Leone, Ansu-
work with some of the
mana Bangura.
1,000 Mandela Wash-
He was a 12-year-old
ington Fellows, a select
boy when the rebels came
group of young sub-Sa-
for his father during the
haran African leaders
horrific war of the 1990s.
ages 25-35 placed for
six weeks at about 40 universities His father was at work so they
around the U.S. The young leaders hacked off the boy’s right arm.
Imagine being brutalized, liv-
are electrifying.
The Law Offices of
Patrick John Sweeney, P.C.
Patrick John Sweeney
Attorney at Law
1549 SE Ladd, Portland, Oregon
Portland:
Hillsoboro:
Facsimile:
Email:
(503) 244-2080
(503) 244-2081
(503) 244-2084
Sweeney@PDXLawyer.com
ing in wartime, driven from the
country to live as an amputee ref-
ugee for four years, and repatriat-
ed only because the host country’s
citizens were suddenly told that
“all Sierra Leoneans are terror-
ists,” and all the refugees had to
flee again.
Ansu, who works with slum
children in Freetown (capital of
Sierra Leone) is a brilliant pub-
lic speaker, forceful, charismatic,
with rhetorical power that con-
nects instantly, stressing equal
access and equal opportunity for
every child. He is the very defi-
nition of resiliency, which is the
hallmark of the best of Africa right
now.
The Mandela Washington Fel-
lowship (MWF) has forged many
new deep connections at Portland
State University and, I’ll wager,
at all the other host universities
around the U.S. Beyond that, I’ve
observed the fellows developing
profound relationships with my
fellow Portlanders and I’ll simi-
larly bet that all host communities
are also now benefitting from these
new relationships with young Af-
rican leaders from all sectors of all
sub-Sarharan African countries.
I watch as a young Nigerian
pursues knowledge of best prac-
tices for floating homes, an inno-
vation that both promises housing
relief in his homeland but also a
threat if poorly regulated (“That’s
how it is now,” he told me). And
a young environmental official
from Ethiopia engages with pub-
lic officials and public policy
professors and practitioners to
seek out the newest US methods
of dialing up commuter efficien-
cy while dialing down carbon
footprint. She has both science
and development degrees and
is drawn to Portland’s model in
several areas, just as other MW
Fellows are learning from other
communities across the US.
The MWF grew out of Pres-
ident Obama’s surprise visit to
the late Nelson Mandela and be-
gan with 500 fellows in 2014, the
same in 2015, and expanded to
1000 this year. We are confident
that this initiative will weave vital,
enduring mutually beneficial rela-
tionships, individually and organi-
zationally, in direct links, Africa to
America.
While this is a state depart-
ment-funded-and-conducted
Obama initiative, there is an ex-
cellent chance that it will contin-
ue, depending on the 2016 elec-
tion.
Advertise with diversity in The
In our enlightened self-interest,
I hope Americans make the choice
that will indeed result in this on-
going exchange that ties emerg-
ing African leaders from politics
to architecture to agriculture to
banking to education to energy
development and much more to
America. Our assumptions about
Africa often flip when we meet
young women and men who work
on peace, human rights, gay and
transgender rights, sustainable ag-
riculture, alternative energy, and
mix in traditional Africa wisdom
and ancient sustainable technol-
ogies hybridized with the latest
high tech advances.
Continuing the MWF will be
good for Africans and good for
Americans. Africa is an incredibly
rich continent with Russia, China,
and America all vying for the most
favored status with many of the 54
countries on the continent—this
initiative goes a long ways toward
strengthening the healthy, pos-
itive, peaceful connections that
will advantage more Americans
and more Africans. Anything else
would be a pity.
Tom H. Hastings is a professor
at Portland State University and
the founding director of PeaceV-
oice.
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