Understanding Wealth Disparity

Wealth is defined as the value of what one owns minus what one owes, yet there remains a significant lack of understanding about this concept, particularly regarding the Black-White wealth gap. The statistic that a typical Black family possesses merely 15 cents for every dollar held by a typical white family is alarming and has remained virtually unchanged since the 1950s. This wealth gap persists despite decades of civil rights activism and is often overlooked in public discourse, which hampers progress towards addressing it. Authors Louise Story and Ebony Reed emphasize that making this statistic widely recognized could catalyze important conversations across various sectors, including housing, education, and healthcare, ultimately leading to meaningful change.