The events surrounding the killing of George Floyd this past May and the protests that followed expose the ongoing racial schism in the United States. Officer Derek Chauvin’s flagrant disregard for George Floyd’s life incited a global outcry, highlighting what some consider to be ongoing white advantage over people of color. Although African Americans today are in some ways living in better circumstances than they were 50 years ago, white Americans continue to enjoy significant advantages over black Americans.
A primary source of strain between black and white Americans is the immense wealth disparity between the two. According to a historical survey of consumer finances conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the median wealth for a middle-class African American household in 2016 was $13,024 compared to a white household’s median wealth of $149,703 — more than ten times the combined assets of black households.
While many hail education as the great equalizer, the way funds are allocated to public schools gives white students a crippling edge over black students. Each district has its own school, which is funded by property taxes from its appropriate neighborhood. Prospective students must reside within a particular school’s district, meaning that black students from underprivileged neighborhoods are forced to attend poorly-funded schools. Conversely, white students residing in areas with higher property values and thus higher tax revenue, attend schools with better resources that can offer a higher-quality education. Consequently, fewer African Americans complete a high school diploma or go on to get college degrees.
Lower literacy and education rates among African Americans relegates them to lower-paying jobs, which explains why white households earn more than black households. African Americans also suffer from unemployment more often than white Americans, which renders them at a tremendous disadvantage. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate among African Americans is nearly double that of white Americans as of October 2020, keeping millions of impoverished people of color poor.
Crime rates go hand in hand with increasing poverty. When Barack Obama addressed the NAACP in 2007, he raised the concern that “more young black men languish in prison than attend universities and colleges across America.” Though that statistic is inaccurate, a disproportionate amount of prison inmates are indeed black. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, an inordinate ~40% of the prison population is of black descent, whereas they make up only ~13% of the American populace, reinforcing allegations of prejudice within the correctional system. Although the black community desires to succeed, the aforementioned factors deprive them of the opportunity to do so, locking many into a cycle of poverty and crime.
Even now, black communities continue to struggle against a seemingly insurmountable number of pre-established obstacles stacked against them by a system that favors the white majority. Although a number of programs and policies have been instituted to counterbalance the disadvantages that African Americans face, the breadth between how each race fares socially, economically, and academically is widening. Black-white friction is unlikely to dissipate until we all assume an active role in bridging the racial divide.
