The American people are finally starting to realize that there is a vast gap in wealth and income between the rich and the rest of America -- a gap as wide as before the Great Depression, and a gap that is still growing wider. But that is not the whole story. When you consider race, you find that the gap in wealth between Whites in the U.S. and minorities (Blacks, Hispanics) is also grower wider -- significantly wider.A new report from the Urban Institute shows the problem. Back in 1983, for every dollar of average/median wealth held by minorities, Whites had five dollars. That was bad enough, and needed to be addressed. But the recession, still being felt by most Americans, was harder on minorities than on Whites, and the gap has grown wider. Now the average wealth of Whites is six dollars for every dollar owned by minorities. And when you consider median wealth (which is less skewed by the rich), it is worse -- with Whites having about eight dollars for every one dollar of minority wealth.
The bright spot in the report (if it can be called a bright spot) is that the gap in income between minorities and Whites has not grown wider. In 1983, Whites earned two dollars for every dollar earned by minorities. In 2010, the same thing is true. That is not fair, and needs to be addressed, but at least the income gap has not grown worse.
There are those among us that say the election of President Obama shows that the United States is entering a "post-racial" period. That is not true -- and it certainly is untrue economically. If we were truly entering such a period, there would be no wealth or income gap between Whites and minorities (or at the very least, it would be significantly decreasing). The fact that it is growing wider, shows that we still have a long way to go before our racial problems are solved.
