The Hidden Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates InequalityOver the past three decades, racial prejudice in America has declined significantly and many African American families have seen a steady rise in employment and annual income. But alongside these encouraging signs, Thomas Shapiro argues in The Hidden Cost of Being African American, fundamental levels of racial inequality persist, particularly in the area of asset accumulation--inheritance, savings accounts, stocks, bonds, home equity, and other investments-. Shapiro reveals how the lack of these family assets along with continuing racial discrimination in crucial areas like homeownership dramatically impact the everyday lives of many black families, reversing gains earned in schools and on jobs, and perpetuating the cycle of poverty in which far too many find themselves trapped. Shapiro uses a combination of in-depth interviews with almost 200 families from Los Angeles, Boston, and St. Louis, and national survey data with 10,000 families to show how racial inequality is transmitted across generations. We see how those families with private wealth are able to move up from generation to generation, relocating to safer communities with better schools and passing along the accompanying advantages to their children. At the same time those without significant wealth remain trapped in communities that don't allow them to move up, no matter how hard they work. Shapiro challenges white middle class families to consider how the privileges that wealth brings not only improve their own chances but also hold back people who don't have them. This "wealthfare" is a legacy of inequality that, if unchanged, will project social injustice far into the future. Showing that over half of black families fall below the asset poverty line at the beginning of the new century, The Hidden Cost of Being African American will challenge all Americans to reconsider what must be done to end racial inequality. |
Contents
The Color of the Safety Net | 21 |
The Cost of Being Black and the Advantage of Being White | 42 |
InheritanceThat Parent Thing | 60 |
Middle Class in Black and White How Level Is the Playing Field? | 87 |
The Homeownership Crossroad | 105 |
Where People Choose to Live | 129 |
Getting a Decent MiddleClass American Education Pursuing Advantage in Schools | 155 |
Assets for Equality | 183 |
Tables | 205 |
Methodology | 208 |
Notes | 211 |
| 223 | |
| 231 | |
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achievement advantages African American Alice and Bob American Dream Angeles areas asset policy assistance average Barry better schools black families Boston Briggette choices Conways Culver City discrimination dollar earned economic educational estate tax fami families we interviewed family wealth family's federal figures financial assets head-start assets Hispanic home equity home mortgage homeowners homeownership important Jefferson Park Kathryn kids legacy live loan look Louis markets means Melvin Oliver middle mobility mortgage discrimination move neighborhood net worth nities opportunities parental help parental wealth percent poverty line private school programs PSID public policy public schools race racial inequality racial wealth gap real estate received residential segregation savings school district social South Pasadena status talked tion transformative assets typical wealth accumulation wealthfare white and black white families white flight working-class Yeah
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Page 4 - Either democracy must be renewed, with politics brought back to life, or wealth is likely to cement a new and less democratic regime — plutocracy by some other name." It's a pretty extreme line, but we live in extreme times. Even if the forms of democracy remain, they may become meaningless. It's all too easy to see how we may become a country in which the big rewards are reserved for people with the right connections; in...
Page xiii - PhD, is assistant professor in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St.