Whites Have Huge Wealth Edge Over Blacks (but Don’t Know It)
Psychologists at Yale recently asked hundreds of Americans these two questions:
For every $100 earned by an average white family, how much do you think is earned by an average black family?
For every $100 in wealth accumulated by an average white family, how much wealth has the average black family accumulated?
The Yale researchers suspected that many people would not get the answers right.
“I’m a person who studies inequality, who should really know how inequality looks,” said one of the psychologists, Michael Kraus, who researches the behaviors and beliefs that help perpetuate inequality. “And I look at the black-white gap, and I’m shocked at the magnitude.”
Black families in America earn just $57.30 for every $100 in income earned by white families, according to the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. For every $100 in white family wealth, black families hold just $5.04.
If Mr. Kraus, of all people, is taken aback by these numbers, what are the odds that most Americans have a good understanding of them? The answer, he and his colleagues fear, has broad implications for how we understand our society and what we’re willing to do to make it fairer.
Americans, and higher-income whites in particular, vastly overestimate progress toward economic equality between blacks and whites, the psychologists reported Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Americans believe that blacks and whites are more equal today than they truly are on measures of income, wealth, wages and health benefits. And they believe more historical progress has occurred than is the case, suggesting “a profound misperception of and unfounded optimism” regarding racial equality.
“It seems that we’ve convinced ourselves – and by ‘we’ I mean Americans writ large – that racial discrimination is a thing of the past,” said Jennifer Richeson, who was another of the study’s authors, along with Julian Rucker, a doctoral student. “We’ve literally overcome it, so to speak, despite blatant evidence to the contrary.”
To understand how people have perceived that progress, the researchers asked blacks and whites of varying income levels to estimate answers to the questions above in both recent years and historically. They also asked about how much black workers with a high school diploma but no college degree earn relative to whites of the same education level, and how the earnings of blacks and whites with a four-year college degree compare.
The present-day results, aggregated across several surveys used in the study, are compared here with actual government data:
Why would people get these questions so wrong — and consistently in the direction of too much optimism? (This study was also conducted after the 2016 election.) Blacks overestimated equality, too, but the biggest effects were among wealthy whites.
The researchers suspect that the answer in part has to do with how little exposure Americans have to people who are unlike them. Given how economically and racially segregated the country remains, many Americans, and especially wealthy whites, have little direct knowledge of what life looks like for families in other demographic groups.
But the pattern this study identifies isn’t simply about lack of access to accurate information. As Mr. Kraus points out, popular videos and charts regularly circulate on social media highlighting the startling levels of inequality in America. And yet, many people who click on them forget about the severity of inequality just long enough to be surprised by it again in the future.
“Despite this information being out there, we don’t really take it in,” Mr. Kraus said. This happens “in a way that suggests that maybe we’re motivated to forget it, or motivated to distort it in our own minds.”
He and Ms. Richeson suspect that we also overgeneralize from other markers of racial progress: the election of a black president, the passage of civil rights laws, the sea change in public opinion around issues like segregation. If society has progressed in these ways, we assume there’s been great economic progress, too.
We’re inclined, as well, to believe that society is fairer than it really is. The reality that it’s not — that even college-educated black workers earn about 20 percent less than college-educated white ones, for example — is uncomfortable for both blacks who’ve been harmed by that unfairness and whites who’ve benefited from it.
“It’s very difficult to consider the possibility that some of what we’ve achieved or gained is due to forces that aren’t our own individual hard work,” Ms. Richeson said. “That’s hard to grapple with, especially in American society. We really believe in egalitarianism and meritocracy.”
These findings suggest that the motivation to see the world as fair may be even stronger in this context than stereotypes white Americans hold, for instance, equating blacks with poverty.
The researchers found in some additional surveys that whites answer these questions more accurately when they’re first asked to consider an America where discrimination persists. If we want people to have a better understanding of racial inequality, this implies that the solution isn’t simply to parrot these statistics more widely. It’s to get Americans thinking more about the forces that underlie them, like continued discrimination in hiring, or disparities in mortgage lending.
It’s a myth that racial progress is inevitable, Ms. Richeson said. “But it’s also dangerous insofar as it keeps us blind to considerable inequality in our nation that’s quite foundational,” she said. “Of course we can’t address it if we’re not even willing to acknowledge it.”
And if we’re not willing to acknowledge it, she adds, that has direct consequences for whether Americans are willing to support affirmative action policies, or continued enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, or renewed efforts at school desegregation.
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by EMILY BADGER
There may be links in the Original Article that have not been reproduced here.
Please read the seed before Replying. Thank you.
I did. What point were you trying to make? That somehow, that old tired spectre of white racism is the cause. Would the reality of not having a father in the home, and a low concern for higher education maybe contribute to the problem?
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2 day suspension for CoC violations ending Jan 17 at 8:00pm est.
What expertise, or even ANY experience do you have with socio-economically challenged areas where black individuals have basically been forced to exist, might
you have ?
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“I also understand that I have made better choices in my life than the average black family.” - CCM
Welcome to Perrie’s House of Racism.
What "point", indeed? It is informative, a presentation of data . You know, that stuff that intelligent people use to formulate policy.
Did you really read the seed?
Racism is not the topic here, as you would know if you had read the seed...
Isn't that the cause of EVERYTHING in this country?
Yale.........
Liberal bastion of Liberal Thinking to create another generation of Lemmings....................
Oddly enough, I, The man of a white family, fully understands that I make more than the average black family.
I also understand that I have made better choices in my life than the average black family.
just sayin.
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2 day suspension ending Jan 17 at 7:30 pm est.
Yup.
nice of you to completely take my comment out of context.
I'm a penny pincher, saving is in my genes.
Much of the wealth of families came about after WWII. With the GI Bill for education and the the Vet housing act allowed many of the GI's of that era to start to establish wealth (house/education) in many instances this was not available to non whites, or minorities as we are known. BTW, blacks are not the only minority in the US.
The dawn of the American middle class was born, and was tilted to non minorities. That is simply a fact.
In the ensuing years since that time the wealth of the average American white family has grown larger and quicker than that of non whites.
To those of you who say this is a racist article, I don't really see it that way. It's simply pointing out some facts.
apparently, facts upset some people
good post
Understanding why people perceive such misperceptions to be true, about how level a playing field America truly presents to all of its peoples, would be a great start in my humble opinion.
Agreed, Kavika. And to a great extent, that mentality and inequality is still alive and kicking even today. It is very obvious to those who really want to see it, and, unfortunately, not many do.
Unfortunately, I don't believe many can.
I will agree partially with you.............
At the end of WW2 the military coming home were entitled to money for education homes etc. Problem being those funds were released through banks. Many bankers at that time under the era of Jim Crow did discriminate and were allowed to do so at that time. So yes at the end of WW2 the white military personal were at an advantage when it came time to apply for such money through a bank.
We are now a generation plus removed from the end of WW2. Most adults now days are their children or grandchildren. Now you can say that wealth the white WW2 military recieved could be passed on to their children. A few cases Im sure their are wealthy Americans from money made by their grand parents. A Grand Parent that got their start after the end of WW2. Any Adult now in their mid 50s or under has been born and raised after the end of Jim Crow Laws in U.S.
Not saying that discrimination doesnt exist now, point is the current generation of adults have had a much more level "playing field" than those at the end of WW2. Whereas those that came back from WW2 are not much of an influence anymore for they are either dead or what few left in their 90s. ie not much of an economic factor now.
It goes to the accumulation of wealth USAF. Being able to get the education and housing help start a portfolio that could be built about by their children, grandchildren and great grandkids.
That generally wasn't available to minorities at the end of WWII.
I'm aware that the WWII era is mostly gone now, but their legacy isn't. I'm not talking about the very wealthy, but the middle class family.
So someone say in their 50s right now that didnt get money from their parents couldnt be "well off" right now? No matter the race?
Are your parents still alive? If so Thank Them for me..........
I didn't say anything of the sort USAF, I have no idea where you got that from.
You state (in so many words) the accumulation of wealth passed on to children or grandchildren from white WW2 vets gives them the advantage today.
Im pointing out in my question (you didnt answer) to you that those mid 50s and under have the chance to be fiscally comfortable without inheriting parents money.
Dont they?
Pretty Much..........
I don't think you understand what my point is, USAF...I never said that those in their 50's or younger couldn't become wealthy. Nor did I say that the those that are wealthy today is because they inherited it from their parents.
What I said is that it gave many of those white families a leg up with a house and education to start to have a portfolio.
It's a fact, I have no idea why your headed off in another direction.
Did you not also imply that the children / grandchildren of those that were given that "Leg Up" benefit by such?
Sure seems so.............
BTW I didnt disagree with the part of those that got the "Leg Up" at the end of WW2 now did I
Yes I did, I think that is quite clear in my comment....So, what's the problem with that?
Did anyone say you did?
So then my question then was back to you that adults in their 50,s and younger could become well off without any money from parents?
The problem with all these studies is that the assume Bill Gates, Nancy Pelosi, the Walton family and every other rich white person in this country are identical to poor white families that have been on welfare and unemployed for generations. I'd rather see a study showing what white and black millionaires have in common vs poor whites and blacks. I bet those results would be surprising.