About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

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

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most