By Kimena Nuhu
Gaps
in wealth, not in education, between black and white families may be the most
powerful force locking Americans into their social class.
In
the story of the American Dream, education and a good job are supposed to erase
the class differences into which we are born and open opportunity to anyone
with merit and grit, regardless of race. But new research is showing that
getting another degree or a higher paying job may do less than believed to make
good on the American Dream for families of color.
Black
Americans with college degrees have less in savings and other assets than white
Americans who dropped out of high school. According to a recent calculation of
2011 figures by a group of academics, the median household headed by a black
college graduate had about two thirds of the net worth of the median white
household headed by someone who did not finish high school.
"The
data shows that a job or an education are not the panaceas we think they
are," says Darrick Hamilton, PhD, a New School economist. Hamilton
produced the figures, which will be released in a forthcoming report, using
Census Department data, along with Duke University's William Darity, Jr, PhD,
and Rebecca Tippett, PhD, of University of North Carolina. Other research has shown similar wealth disparities
between white and Latino families.
"When
you look descriptively at families, we see that education does not erase the
racial wealth divide," Hamilton said. Source from BBC News.
