In the past month, many issues affecting black Americans have come to light. One that is especially troubling is the reality of income inequality in America. Though we have made some improvements in terms of representation, the structures are designed in a way that discourages overcoming the racial wage gap. While all POC groups experience income disparity with their white counterparts, the problem is most persistent and extreme with black Americans. The worst part is that even though we've made progress in the last century, the income gap is still as bad as it ever was.
Is there really income inequality?
Short answer, yes and it's bad. A 2016 study found that white families have a typical net worth that is 10 times that of black families. That's an astonishing difference for two groups of people and it may be getting even worse. From 2007 to 2013, white wealth declined by only 26%, in stark contrast to black wealth which declined 44%. In fact, black people are more than twice as likely to have a net worth of zero as compared to their white counterparts. For two groups of people that have been in America for as long as they have, one group has seen many more opportunities opened up to them and have raced ahead because of it.
Where did this income gap come from?
Income inequality has been passed down from generation to generation, dating all the way back to slavery. Even though slavery ended over 150 years ago, black citizens have still seen their opportunities curbed. Even though black Americans were now free, they were still far behind whites in terms of wealth. Now they had to start from nothing, while America had over 100 years of prosperity. There is no one certain cause of income inequality, but it arises from major systemic issues throughout the last few centuries.
In the years following freedom, blacks also had to fight discrimination from other laws, like the Jim Crow laws. These laws made segregation legal in states across the US. This would prevent many black families from getting the same service as white families. While they were required to have access to many of the same services, those for black people were normally funded less than white families. This included schooling options. Black people were forced to attend different schools than white people, most of which had far less funding than white schools, limiting their education opportunities. Employers also weren't required to practice anti-discrimination in their hiring processes, making it difficult for black people to get better jobs.
Even recently, discrimination came in the form of redlining. Redlining is the practice of not offering services to people from certain areas, effectively creating a red line of an area that won't be served. Redlining has prevented those from lower income neighborhoods to have access to certain services. And, as you guessed it, these lower income people are more often than not black.
Won't this just get better with time?
Many people hold the idea that as the next generation takes control of the country, black Americans will be given more opportunities and the gap will settle over time. However, according to the only thing that can test this theory, the trends of income disparity, this issue is not getting any better by leaving it to work itself out. According to PEW Research, black people in the 90th percentile of income only earn 68% of what white people earn, and that percentage hasn't changed since 1970. This means that even those in higher paying jobs are still far behind their white counterparts. This is not a simple case of a group of people not getting an opportunity, because the people who have been given opportunities are still not able to bridge the income gap.
Even those that do make it out of their lower class status, find that it can be difficult to stay there. For black Americans that make it from lower-class to middle-class, they find that their kids or grandchildren fall back into poverty. A Brookings study found that 7 out of 10 black children that are born into the middle-class fall back into poverty. Even worse, half of all black children born into poverty, stay in poverty. They have limited upward motion and seemingly more downward motion.
According to an article from Psychology Today, black Americans had "less than one-tenth of the wealth that white families possessed in 1963 and, in 2016, they still had less than one-tenth." This issue is not only pervasive, but it's not getting better. This is not something that we can close our eyes to and hope it passes. Rather, recent unrest in our communities stemming from the unequal treatment of black individuals should be a wake up call that these issues need to be addressed. A doctor does not administer medicine to treat only the symptoms of the patient if the cause of the symptoms is curable. A doctor will treat the illness that is causing these symptoms and cure the patient.
What can we do to fix income inequality?
Recognizing that there is an issue is the easy part. Looking for ways to solve it is a lot more complicated. Many different people have their own views and opinions on what can lower the income gap. There have been countless ideas ranging from letting it sort itself out all the way to reparations.
Reparations would include direct payments to black people who have been most affected by racial injustices over the last few centuries. Critics of reparations claim that it will be difficult, especially to decide who is eligible for reparations. While proponents argue that black people cannot close the gap, caused by centuries of setbacks, by just working harder. Likely the solution is somewhere in between, but, like many things, there is no clear cut right or wrong answer.
However, the first step in working towards a solution is to recognize that there's a problem. As a country that touts equality as a right for all citizens, it's hard to look at such issues and think that inequality isn't still a struggle for many.
