http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/business/racial-wealth-gap-widened-during-recession.html?pagewanted=all&pagewanted=print
The article that I found from the New York Times was about how race is still affecting the lives of people in everyday life in America today. The ways that segregation has led to the overall harder life for people of a non-white race, is continuing to affect them in society today. Studies done in 2010 are revealing that then and now, the rate at which the recession affected black and Hispanic families, is not getting any better. These families are losing houses more often, finding themselves with a later retirement, and not having as much wealth as the average white family has in America. Researches are looking for ways to help these families, and make the wealth gap between races smaller, but are finding this very difficult.
Why do you think the recession hit the Black and Hispanic families the hardest? Do you think there is any real way to help this issue and make the wealth gap between races throughout the country smaller?
I don't think that the recession necessarily hit Black and Hispanic families harder than White families. I believe that they had less to start with from the beginning so when the recession did hit they ended up with less than they started with, which was less than White families in the first place. I don't believe that there is any real way to get rid of the wealth gap between races without getting rid of race completely. Unless race is eliminated then there will always be inequality in opportunities.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sydney. The gap that was created by the housing policies back in the mid 1900's has set the Black and Hispanic families back. It isn't necessarily the recession that is hitting them harder, it is the fact that they started it at a disadvantage. Unfortunately I don't think that the wealth gap between races will get smaller. There is already such a huge gap that I don't see it ever getting smaller.
ReplyDeleteI think that the recession hit Hispanic and African American families particularly hard because,as Sydney and Ryan mentioned, they had less to begin with. As Ryan said, the the racist housing polices in the mid 1900s among other racist financial processes made it very difficult for people of color to gain wealth. The effects of those policies are still around today. When an event like the recession happens, it makes unwealthy people lose more of what they have because they do not have enough money to begin with.
ReplyDeleteI do not think there is a real way to significantly decrease the wealth gap in the United States without giving a bunch of money to poor people of color. That would not be good because it would just be reverse racism, which is not the best way to counterbalance the country's previous racism. This might be controversial but I think that we should just ignore race and therefore ignore the wealth gap between races. However, I would most likely have a different opinion if I was not white.
I agree with Sydney. I personally do not think that they are being targeted by recession purposely. I think the reasoning why Blacks and Hispanics are getting hit the hardest because a majority of either those ethnics groups were not financially stable to begin with. If all ethnics groups and races all had an equal start and were all financially stable, there would be a lot less of a gap then there is now. To help solve the wealth gap we could create programs that help races search for jobs or ways to become financially stable. If we provide some sort of education on becoming financially stable, families will have a grasp on how to do so. I agree with Dan Khallin that were wont be a specific way to end the wealth gap. No matter what some races will be more wealthy than others; its out of our control. We can offer programs to help support poor families but that will not necessarily end the wealth gap. I also like Dan's point when he said that we should ignore race. The fact that there is a wealth gap is because we are comparing races' wealth. If we ignore the face that there are races in our society then there will be no point in calculating which races' are most wealthy.
ReplyDeleteI think that the recession hit African American and Hispanic families the hardest due to the lack of equality when it comes to their economic success. I also with Sydney that the different racial groups were not hit harder the one and another, but I do think that the effects for African Americans and Hispanics were harder to deal with because of where they stand in society. I believe that there is a need for the economic gap to close between each racial group, but sadly I do not think that it is possible for the country to do so. What makes me believe this is the fact that we have tried for many years to have equality for all races, yet there are still complications today in 2013 when it comes to equality.
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