Racial Financial and Wealth Gap

Racial Financial and Wealth Gap Name: Institution: Wealth gap refers to the income disparity between two or more groups. The gap between the rich and the poor has increased in the United States and other parts of the world. The income gap between black and white Americans has persisted for a long time and it seems to be widening, this is an indication of how far as a country we are from true equality. From a survey of income and program participation that was conducted in 2014, it was found that black families hold less than seven cents on the dollar as compared to their white counterparts. The white households that are near the poverty line have a wealth of about $18,000 while on the other side black families in the same economic levels have a median wealth near zero. The wealth gap indicated the differences between the median wealth of the whites and the blacks. This paper examines and describes the cause of racial financial and wealth gap and also explains the solutions to this issue. The racial wealth gap started as a result of slavery in the United States, and when people fought slavery as an institution, it dissolved to other areas of the society since it was never confronted. During this time, African Americans were used as slaves; the southern states used blacks as labor and not capital. The black people did not have control over the capital. For one, to generate wealth, money is needed. The existence of the Jim Crow laws in the southern economy made it impossible for blacks to build wealth. Additionally, discrimination in different sectors of the economy made it hard for the black Americans to thrive economically while segregation made it possible for the white households to accumulate wealth through opportunities which were systematically denied to the people of color. It is essential to understand that the outcomes of the past injustices and inequalities have been carried forward as wealth is distributed down generations and are fortified by ostensibly subconscious practices and policies in our day-to-day life. Additionally, the wealth of the country is unequally distributed by race between whites and black households. This leaves African Americans families with a fraction of the wealth possessed by the white families and as a result, the minorities are left economically insecure and with fewer opportunities to guarantee economic mobili...