å Sunday, November 27th, 2016

In the report,” The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap,” by Thomas Shapiro, Tatjana Meschede, nd Sam Osoro, they indicate the four main factors that have fueled the racial wealth gap in the U.S..They break down and explain in detail each of the four main factors, home ownership, Income and Employment, Inheritance, and College Education.

The first factor they discuss is Homeownership; the study shows that homeownership is the largest form of investment for most American, similar the American Dream which everyone who moved to America dreams of owning a house and have it full pay at once. To own a home is the biggest investment and eventually becomes one of your the most important aspects to your life. At first, African American families were giving loans very quickly and with low-interest rates, once the economy hit a recession they were forced to go into foreclosure, creating a bigger gap for between the equality of Whites and African Americans.

The second-factor Income nd Unemployment, due to African Americans suffering and having to be set back because of the discrimination they have suffered for many years in the employment situation.Due to the discrimination, they have low wages which do not allow them to become wealthy. Many face unemployment because they have been discriminated thru the hiring process. It creates instability for them and their families.

The third factor is inheritance, most White American families have been around for many years, which has given them the opportunity to be able to gain wealth to pass down to their future generations. However, that is not the case with African Americans who have suffered discrimination in labor and wages which have not allow them to create wealth for them and have an inheritance to pass down to their future generations.

The fourth factor is College Education, at first education was a way to better-living condition and way to create wealth for you. The college has become more and more expensive making very hard to be able to attend college and not be in massive debt. Not only having a debt but many have to drop out of college before actually finishing their degrees due to a high cost of college degree and having to support their families. Many White have their parents who pay for their full college tuition or have an inheritance to be able to ay for some of their college years.
Lastly, the article discusses the Social and Cultural factor many believe that marriage is easier for bills when having two incomes, yet when both spouses are paid low wages it does not make it easier having too low incomes to be able to support a family. I strongly agree with the research and numbers show how the discrimination has set back African Americans in a way that it becomes extremely hard to be bale to catch up to the success of the White Americans.

The racial wealth gap between Whites and African-Americans in the United States is extremely large. In addition, the gap continues to widen due to some of the factors found in this report. The factors show that Whites in the United States have and continue to have an advantage that keeps them in a beneficial position financially verses African-Americans. These factors are Homeownership, Household Income, Unemployment, Education and Inheritance. These factors are some of the main causes of the gaps, which have been only increasing the gap over time.

Owning a home is the American dream and one of the largest investments for American families. Many factors within the process of homeownership that African-Americans do not benefit from are keeping them at the lower end of the gap. Discrimination keeps African-American’s in certain neighborhoods where the equity might not increase as much as it would in a White neighborhood. This segregation has been set in place to make sure the wealth gap continues to benefit white Americans. White Americans are able to build equity and have access to credit, home loans and lower interest rates, which puts them ahead in being able to increase their financial portfolios.

Household income and unemployment go hand in hand since the discriminatory disadvantages that African-American’s experience in the workplace puts them in positions where they are making far less than White Americans. African-Americans are more likely to be on unemployment for a longer period of time and are more likely to have to use their emergency savings and therefore are not able to have extra money for investments.

Educational inequalities give White Americans a head start on future financial success because education in predominately African-American neighborhoods is poor, which then can hinder them from being prepared for higher education. African-Americans are also more likely to continue higher education due to finance obligations at a younger age. White Americans are more likely to graduate from college with less or zero debt and African-American’s graduate from college which a larger amount of debt and are not able to save or invest their money.

Since White Americans are able to save more money and have more investments, they are able to save money for the younger generations. They are able to give their children money to put a down payment on a home, help them in case of an emergency, pay for elite education. All of the factors that give their children an a head start with their financial portfolios.

I agree with these factors hindering non-white Americans from achieving fianancial success. I do think that systems have been set in place especially with segregation and school zoning to keep certain races in a particular area. Tax breaks will continue to be a major contribute to the gap as well.

In the report, “The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap,” Thomas Shapiro, Tatjana Meschede, and Sam Osoro (2013) provide information on the following five factors that fueled the racial wealth gap in the U.S. as well as the policy approaches that will “set our country in a more equitable and prosperous direction”.

The first factor is home ownership. The study on home ownership is Americas largest form of investment. Home ownership is determined on the length of the investment return, offering the best pay out of wealth. Prior to the real estate crisis loans were pretty much handed out to African American families. However, once the crisis hit, tons of African Americans were forced to foreclose. Which furthered the rascal margin between African Americans and whites, and of the difference in wealth.

The next factor is between income and unemployment. During this study the income increase reflects a major role the accumulation of wealth. African Americans suffer from a history of filled with discrimination in their employment sectors. The implications revolving around their history dampers in the work place for African Americans today. They are faced with inequality in work benefits and stability unlike the Whites, who are not affected by these elements within the work place.

The following factor is of college education. Originally education acted as a neutralizer among the difference, but this is no longer the same notion it once was. With the increase of college tuition, African Americans have a greater chance to re-frame from attending and will eventually drop out in hope of steering free from debt. Whereas the Whites will experience the option to afford the completion of their education and benefits.

The forth factor is of inheritance. Statistically whites are five times more likely to inherit money and invest, more so than African Americans.  Whereas African Americans are more likely to save it for a rainy day, just in case of emergencies.

Lastly, there is Social and Cultural factors. Marriage benefits the higher earning white families. The contribution of income acts as a platform of their current wealth. Whereas African Americans who are married does not reflect the same wealth as a white family does. Both African American spouses have low incomes that could never equate to a white household’s wealth.

This entire study is of a systematic cycle of unattainable wealth for the African Americans. The discriminatory history affiliated with this race creates huge setbacks. In many forms of wealth distribution.

In the report, “The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap,” by Thomas Shapiro, Tatjana Meschede, and Sam Osoro, they discuss the main factors that fuel the racial wealth gap. Those factors as per their report were:

Homeownership: As per this study homeownership is the largest form of investment for most Americans. The length of homeownership plays a big role on the return of its investment, therefor the significant forecaster of the wealth gap. Unfortunately African American faced a large numbers of foreclosures during the real state crisis of 2008, which contributed to the high wealth disparity between whites and African American (3,4).

Income and Unemployment: As per this study the increase of income plays a major role in wealth accumulation. It is historically known that African Americans have suffered discrimination in the job markets. That has resulted is getting jobs where they don’t have the same benefits and face work instabilities that most whites don’t have to worry about (4-5).

College education: Education was known as the “great equalizer,” but that is no longer the case. Now that colleges are getting too expensive, African Americans are more likely to drop out to avoid dept. Versus the wealthier whites that are more likely to afford the higher education who are the one’s taking advantages of the benefits of attending college.

Inheritance: Even though most Americans inherit very little to no money, Whites are 5 times as likely to inherit than African Americans. The major difference in what happens to the inherence its whites are more like invest their inheritance. As for African Americans, they are more likely to save it just in case they have to use it for an emergency (5).

Social and Cultural Factors: As per this study, marriage seems to benefit already higher earning white families. When they combine their incomes together that tends to help then build on their current wealth. As for African Americans, marriage doesn’t help much in the accumulation of wealth. Yes, combining two incomes does help but when they are both significantly low, it doesn’t make much of an impact (6).

I can both agree and disagree with this study. Yes there has been a significant amount of discrimination that African Americans have faced and therefore have struggled in getting a fair chance in accumulating wealth. At first they struggle with trying to get fair loan. Afterwards, they were victims of predatory lending which have left many to lose their homes after the real state crisis. But I’m such a believer that even though the world seems to be going against you, there is no reason to give up. I believe that when there is a will there is a way. Many African Americans have gotten out of poverty and have become major entrepreneurs. So even though the study shows enough evidence to support the argument there are always exemptions to this.

In today’s world, the words racism, discrimination and inequality have a direct impact in our daily lives. We see it every day in the media, in education and even in the workforce. Racism and discrimination take on various shapes and form in the realm of work. While we have studied many arguments that have shown the differences of wage and work in our modern society, this week’s readings take us to another level of inequality which has contributed to the prevention of upward mobility for specific groups of people today. These articles talk about the impact of racism and discrimination in the realm of work and how the inequality creates a disadvantage to people of color living in the U.S. today.

In the article by Pager and Sheppard, they begin to unravel the complexity of racial discrimination in the realm of wealth through employment, housing and finance markets as well as provide a system of measurement to see the disparity in each. Through some case studies, the article also presents the different types of discrimination that are embedded in each area of wealth. The article defines the idea of individual, organizational and structural discrimination that are embedded in the four areas of wealth discussed in the article. The authors provide hard data that give the overall impact of how discrimination can influence people of color today.

The other article, “The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap…” takes a focused look into wealth inequality today between whites and blacks as well as the factors that contribute to it. The authors argue that elements such as home ownership, income levels, education and accessibility to economic gain directly impact wealth between whites and blacks. The article also argues how these inequalities are created by a combination of individual-cultural choices and institutional policies and practices pre-and post-Civil Rights movement. The studies in the article show how the inequality in the areas of gaining wealth create disadvantages and unequal opportunities for people of color today.

Throughout our semester, the element of inequality has lingered in many ways. We have seen how the relationships between workers and employers affect production and entertain different perspectives of how work should be handled. We discussed how the philosophy of earning wages can be seen differently between worker and employer. Even in our discussion on the idea of capitalism and how the “true spirit of capitalism” might be in some but not all. Point is, inequality exists in many of these arguments but when we see that some of these in-differences are embedded in exposing people’s race, religion, sexual orientation and color of their skin, it is hard to form a constructive argument. The marginalization of people because of race and discrimination is founded in the realm of hate. No constructive argument can be formed when hate is a factor. What these articles did do well was exposed the tangible evidence and possible solutions to combat the inequalities in wealth and work. But to begin to address the issues of race and discrimination, hate must be conquered among people today. It must begin with people themselves.

In a report on a longitudinal study of approximately 1,700 families, Tatjana Meschede, Sam Osoro, and Thomas Shapiro reported four primary spheres of life that account for the majority of the wealth gap between white and black U.S. citizens, as well as offered policy changes that may help to close this gap. I found their report to be interesting and I agree with their findings and solutions.

First, the authors reported that homeownership was the largest predictor of the wealth gap since owning a home is the largest investment families make and the biggest piece of a wealth portfolio (Meschede, Osoro, & Shapiro, p.3). White people have a much higher rate of homeownership than do black people, as black people must deal with a history of systemic racism that caused them to have less access to credit, lower incomes, residential segregation, foreclosures, high risk loans and mortgages, and being demanded to pay extremely high prices for homes (Meschede et al., pps.3-4).  To remedy this, Meschede et al. insist upon enforcing fair policies in lending, mortgage, and housing to ensure black people have equal opportunities to own homes (Meschede et al., p.6).

Next, Meschede et al. link together the effects of unequal income opportunities for black people with higher rates of unemployment. Again, due to a history of systemic racism, black people deal with being discriminated against in the hiring process, being trained and promoted at work, as well as being offered benefits through their employers (Mescheded et al., p.4).  Due to these same factors, being unemployed affects members of black communities even more (Meschede et al., p.5).  Finding a good-paying job is challenging enough and when one loses it and must rely on emergency savings, those savings are no longer able to go towards a wealth portfolio, increasing the gap between black and white people.  Meschede et al. suggest policies enforced at local, state, and federal levels that increase minimum wage, equal pay, and benefits offered by employers (Meschede et al., p.6).

Meschede et al. then point to the wealth gap in terms of inheritance. White folks are much more likely to receive inheritances from their families so most start out with a larger wealth portfolio than their black counterparts (Meschede et al., p.5).  To offset this, Meschede suggest taxing the very wealthy more and those that have lower incomes, less (Meschede et al., p.6).

Finally, Meschede et al. highlight systemic racism once again as the catalyst for unequal college education opportunities. Many black people are segregated into lower-income areas that are given less tax money for schools, resulting in lower-quality education and preparation for college (Meschede et al., p.5).  This factor, along with increasing tuition, are causing many black students to drop out of school or graduate with extremely high debt, if they go to college at all (Meschede et al., p.5).  Meschede et al. posit that investing in higher-quality education for all and enforcing policies that assist low-income students attend school as well as not leave them debt ridden upon graduation (Meschede et al., p.6).

I agree with the authors that a long history of systemic racism is to blame for the income disparities and wealth gap for black citizens, not personal choices or character flaws. It will take a lot more time to convince policy makers to adjust the current agenda but it can be done, if not by one topic at a time.  The attitudes and ideologies of racism instilled within many American citizens have recently been shown throughout the recent presidential campaign.  But I would like to think that there are more citizens who recognize systemic racism for what it is and does, and who are willing to fight even harder to eliminate it.