WHITES HAVE HUGE WEALTH EDGE OVER BLACKS (but Don’t Know It)
The economic inequality between white and black families is not only a grave injustice but it is not perceived by the whites. Here is an article in the NY Times that says in part:
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?
$0-$25 – $26-$50 – $51-$75 – $76-$100 – $100+
For every $100 in wealth accumulated by an average white family, how much wealth has the average black family accumulated?
$0-$25 – $26-$50 – $51-$75 – $76-$100 – $100+
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,