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48 Hum. Rts. 2 (2022-2023)
Barriers to Racial Wealth Equality

handle is hein.journals/huri48 and id is 32 raw text is: Barriers to Racial Wealth Equality By Regina S. Baker and Fenaba R. Addo w In the United States, racial wealth inequality, particularly the Black- white wealth gap, is massive. In 2019, the median wealth for white house- holds was $188,200, compared to $24,100 and $36,100 for Black and Hispanic house- holds, respectively (Bhutta et al., 2020). To better understand the ongoing persistence of this racial wealth inequality, we outline several historical and contemporary mech- anisms that have predominantly supported wealth accumulation for white Americans and/or impeded or exploited wealth oppor- tunities for Black Americans. HISTORICAL BARRIERS Contemporary wealth inequality cannot be fully understood without comprehension of historical barriers that helped shape the wealth trajectories of families over gener- ations. The institution of slavery was in- strumental in helping both create and deny wealth in America. Black Americans were brought to the United States as capital. Their mere existence and the exploitation of their labor for chattel slavery directly served to enrich white Americans. Where- as slavery denied the opportunity for Black Americans to generate income to create wealth, it produced capital that enabled white Americans to develop wealth over generations. Not surprisingly, scholars have demonstrated a link between slavery and the Black-white poverty gap (O'Connell, 2012), white economic gain (Reece, 2020), and economic mobility (Berger, 2018). The wealth implications of slavery are indeed huge. The estimated loss of Black wealth as a result of enslavement is $14 trillion in today's dollars (Darity & Mullen, 2020). Further, with the emancipation of slaves, the unfulfilled federal promise to com- pensate freed people with 40 acres and a mule is estimated at $16.5 trillion of wealth loss from Black families (Darity & Mullen, 2020). The Jim Crow era further constrained the economic opportunities of Black peo- ple in a number of ways that exacerbated the intergenerational wealth implications of slavery. For example, limited rights and opportunities led many free Black people to work as sharecroppers (i.e., contracted agricultural laborers). Racism predisposed them to less capital, higher expenses, more unfair arrangements, higher debts, and thus fewer opportunities for economic advancement than white sharecroppers. Sharecropping was thus deemed the new slavery by W.E.B. Du Bois for ensur- ing long-term poverty and economic oppression. Jim Crow segregation also created barriers to wealth through the exclusion of Black people from many dimensions of everyday life, such as quality housing, education, jobs, and public accommoda- tions. It served as an effective mechanism to limit resources and Black economic 2 rr-nrights

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