Tackling the Racial Wealth Gap

INTERACTIVE

Wealth—a household’s assets minus its debts—is a key measure of financial well-being. Unfortunately, the United States is home to stark and persistent racial disparities in household wealth. For centuries, American public policy systematically excluded Black households from opportunities to build wealth. The racial wealth gap was created and will only be eliminated by systematic and intentional public policy choices.

WHITE WEALTH VS. BLACK WEALTH (2060)

5.9x

RACIAL WEALTH GAP (2060)

$1.56m

Equity requires work!

Even if policymakers adopted all five of these ambitious proposals by 2020, white households would still be projected to have almost twice as much wealth, on average, as their Black counterparts in 2060. Closing the remaining $1.2 million racial wealth gap requires intentional, targeted interventions such as material reparations—including those that would be studied under H.R. 40—to address the volume of harms compounded over the past 400 years.

Policy interventions

Equity requires work!

Even if policymakers adopted all five of these seemingly ambitious proposals by 2020, white households still would be projected to have almost twice as much wealth, on average, as their Black counterparts in 2060. To close the remaining $1.2 million racial wealth gap would require that policymakers deliver intentional, targeted interventions like material reparations – including those that would be studied under HR 40 -- to address the sheer volume of harms compounded over the past 400 years.

Consumer protection

Fair housing

Debt-free college (+)

Retirement savings

Baby bonds

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