The century gap: Low economic mobility for black men, 150 years after the Civil War
Take the economic gap between black and white Americans, which is stark and stubborn. Black median household income was $36,898 in 2015, compared to $62,950 for whites. The gap has actually widened slightly since 2002 (from $23,500 to $26,000).
The black-white income gap obviously has many causes. But one that has received too little attention is the persistent race gap in rates of relative intergenerational mobility. This mobility gap means that much of the progress towards closing the race gap made by one generation is lost in the next, and the result is a century-long delay in economic improvements for black Americans.
Racism could well be a big part of the answer. There has been, and remains, systemic racial discrimination in the justice system, housing market, and workplace. A modern example: black Americans who smoke marijuana are almost four times as likely to be arrested for possession, even though black and white Americans report using the drug at similar rates. Experimental studies find that black job applicants are half as likely to receive a call back than their white counterparts-on par with white applicants given criminal convictions. It’s hard to be upwardly mobile when your resume is twice as likely to be thrown in the trash, compared to otherwise identical white applicants.
Gaps in the opportunities to accumulate human capital remain today. Many states and local governments spend less on their poorest, disproportionately black and brown school districts than on their wealthiest districts. In many of these schools, students have fewer extracurricular opportunities and experience significantly higher teacher turnover relative to wealthier schools. Black Americans are at risk of continuing to lag behind whites, in terms of economic resources, until and unless we can narrow the gaps in intergenerational mobility; and that means, above all, investments in education and skills.
By Richard Reeves and Edward Rodrigue