The Color of Wealth

By Sean Gonsalves, AlterNet. Posted April 1, 2008.

I'm morally exhausted from dealing with, and talking about, race too.

But if we're going to have a conversation, I like the tone and tenor set by the Senator from Illinois after being forced to go there because of a transparently hypocritical "controversy" in which the black guy is predictably caricatured as "anti-American" and/or "anti-white reverse racist."

In his historic Philadelphia speech on race, Obama envisioned two parallel tracks "on the path of a more perfect union."

Black America, he advised, should embrace "the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past," while white America, Obama rightly noted, ought to honestly -- and without guilt -- confront the fact "that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination -- and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past -- are real and must be addressed."

Before there can be meaningful discussion, typical Americans will need to come face to face with some meaningful facts about U.S. economic history. Beneath the superficial race talk is the very real and complex issue of the color of wealth.

Actually, the important book The Color of Wealth -- written by a multi-racial research team at United for a Fair Economy -- is as good a resource as any to delve into the complexity of race and class in America. It's also a good way to get acquainted with some basic history that helps explain this great country's persistent racial wealth divide.

The racial impasse: according to poll after poll, the majority of white America sees African-American economic prospects being just as good, if not better, than their own. The general perception in white America is that "the playing field is level," the polls tell us. And, if you're an ethnic immigrant, you don't see what all that white supremacist history has to do with you anyway. Yet, a good segment of black America continues to talk about the persistence of "institutional racism" and how whites have an unfair and unacknowledged advantage etc.

Starting with the (obvious) observation conservatives seem to think is some kind of sublime insight into human nature, The COW points out: "of course, individual effort does make a difference in financial success, compared to how the same individual would have fared without putting forth an effort. But Americans begin the race from different starting lines. Not only do well-off people, primarily whites, have significant head starts, but even many working-class whites have modest advantages when compared with working-class people of color, most of whom begin far behind whites' starting line."

So while it's true, for example, that black per capita income doubled between 1968 and 2004, jobs and income are only one small part of the picture. Wealth and assets, and how these economic foundations cascade down through generations by way of inheritance, is at the heart of the matter.

If you look at Census data, The COW correctly notes that "three-quarters of white people own their homes, while a slight majority of people of color are renters. In times of inflation, housing becomes easier to afford for homeowners with fixed mortgage rates, while renters see their housing costs rise."

See more stories tagged with: race, obama, class, wealth, inequality

Sean Gonsalves is a syndicated columnist and news editor with the Cape Cod Times.

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