According to a new study by the Urban Institute,
While the Great Recession didn’t cause the wealth disparities between whites and minorities, it did exacerbate them. The 2007–09 recession brought about sharp declines in the wealth of white, black, and Hispanic families alike, but Hispanics experienced the largest decline. Lower home values account for much of Hispanics’ wealth loss, while retirement accounts are where blacks were hit hardest.
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According to the Economic Policy Institute,
In the fourth quarter of 2012, nationwide unemployment rates were 6.3 percent for whites, 9.8 percent for Hispanics, and 14.0 percent for blacks. These elevated rates are projected to remain essentially unchanged at the end of 2013.
In Illinois, the unemployment rates were 7.0 percent for whites, 9.7 percent for Hispanics, and 17.6 percent for blacks.
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The United States has become increasingly segregated by class, while class differences themselves have been rising.
In a study of residential housing patterns, the Pew Research Center demonstrates that residential segregation by income has increased during the past three decades across the United States and in 27 of the nation’s 30 largest major metropolitan areas.
The analysis finds that 28 percent of lower-income households in 2010 were located in a majority lower-income census tract, up from 23 percent in 1980, and that 18 percent of upper- income households were located in a majority upper-income census tract, up from 9 percent in 1980.
While residential income segregation has increased in Chicago, as elsewhere in the country, the change there is actually somewhat less than in other major U.S. cities, such as Houston, Dallas, and Miami.
Another interesting finding is that, class and racial segregation are actually moving in opposite directions. While segregation according to income has been increasing, residential segregation by race has been on the decline. Still, residential isolation by race remains greater than residential isolation by income. For example, in 2010, 42 percent of blacks lived in a census tract that was majority black, compared with 28 percent of low-income households living in a majority low-income tract and 18 percent of upper-income households living in a majority upper-income tract. And while black-white segregation continues to decline in America, residential segregation of Hispanic and Asian Americans has likely increased.
The fact is, the United States is a country of longstanding racial segregation and, as the distribution of income has become more unequal, increasing class segregation.
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Ownership of wealth in the United States is even more unequal than the distribution of income. And it’s been getting worse.
According to data recently released by the Census Bureau, those in the highest twenty percent of income earners have 64 times more wealth than those in the lowest twenty percent, while white Americans have 22 times more wealth than blacks.
The median household net worth for those in the highest quintile was $333,168, versus $5,193 for those in the lowest quintile. The net worth of whites was $110,729 in 2010, compared to $4,995 for blacks. The difference is similarly notable when it comes to those of Hispanic origin who had a median household net worth in 2010 of $7,424 (giving rise to a ratio of white to Hispanic of 15 to 1)
After the crash, the inequality of net worth only got worse. In 2005, the ratio of the wealth of the highest to the lowest quintile of income earners was 38.6 ($386,982 compared to $10,000), while the ratio of white to black wealth was 11.8 ($130,350 compared to $11,013) and white to Hispanic was 7.6 ($130,350 compared to $17,078).
According to CNN [ht: ja],
Asians, meanwhile, are more concentrated on the West Coast, which was hit harder by the mortgage meltdown. And the arrival of new Asian immigrants in the last decade contributed to the decline in overall wealth, according to Rakesh Kochhar, co-author of the Pew Research Center report on wealth.
Thus, the wealth gaps—by income and race—which were already very large before the crash, have continued to grow during the course of the Second Great Depression.
