Black wealth has been disappearing since 2007. That loss only grew under our first black President. The question now is what will happen under President Donald Trump? From his plans on tax reform, to his recent executive order removing funding for the Affordable Health Care act subsidies the picture looks grim for those most in need of assistance. In my prior piece I spoke of a new study by the Institute for Policy studies, which has stated that on our current economic track the median black family is going to be worth zero dollars by 2053. According to the study
Between 1983 and 2013, median black household wealth decreased by 75% to $1,700 and Latino household wealth fell 50% to $2,000. At the same time, median white household wealth rose 14% to $116,800.If this trend continues, an African American born in 2013 will see her household wealth hit zero by the time she turns 40.
In addition, using the new Federal Reserve data for 2016 what we see is that without the family car the middle black family in America is worth just about $4,000 today. In my piece with economist Matt Bruenig we showed,
Without the family car, the middle black family has a net worth of $4,160. The middle white American family in contrast is still worth $140,600. This means, using an accounting model that more excludes the family car, the median white family is worth over 33 times that of the median black family… There is a similarly daunting gap between black families at the 99th percentile and their white counterparts. The 99th percentile black family is worth a mere $1,574,000 while the 99th percentile white family is worth over 12 million dollars. This means over 870,000 white families have a net worth above 12 million dollars, while, out of the 20 million black families in America, fewer than 380,000 are even worth a single million dollars. By comparison, over 13 million of the total 85 million white families are millionaires or better.
By the data barely any black families have a net worth above even a single million dollars in America, while 15% of white families are above the million-dollar threshold. With an even larger percentage of white millionaires being present in Los Angeles due to property values.
These are times to be vigilant in our politics. Black America must continue the economic battles that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. took on at the end of his life. We must look at our legacy in this country as African Americans, and demand more than we have received. We must pick up the battle for Civil Rights, looking closely at economic inequality and access. In the end we must push ever forward, or be pushed backward in the era of President Donald Trump.
Antonio Moore graduated from UCLA, and Loyola Law School. He is now a practicing Los Angeles based attorney. In recent years he worked as a producer on the Emmy nominated documentary entitled Crack in the System presented by Al Jazeera. Subscribe to his YouTube Channel @ Tonetalks Download the Dash Radio App and catch his show on Dash Talk starting 10/6/2017
