Racial Wealth Gap In America Essay

Many people in America see racial progress in the country and see that racism has become a thing of the past. However, there still remains a racial wealth gap in the United States. According to the article, Oscar Lewis’s “culture of poverty” created the idea that African American families are “caught in a tangle of pathology.” Pathology is how a typical disease behaves; therefore, he is saying that the reason the families are in such a state is because of their own doing. This ideology is called post racialism. Another myth that is dispelled is the idea that African Americans tend to have soft skills, and not the skills of an educated worker. The article shows that African American males hold the least amount of jobs in construction and maintenance than other races in America which require a low amount of educate, but produce higher wages. However, in service jobs such as cashiers which also require minimal education, but offer low wages African American males are the highest concentration. The reason there is a gap is not due to financial illiteracy, which means that they do not necessarily know how to manage money. It is hard to manage money if there is not much money to mange in the first place. An example the authors used was the Wall Street crash in 2008. The loss was not due to the shareholders financial illiteracy of the …show more content…
The author tends to disagree with the post racial myth that has gripped many Americans. The racial wealth gap is actually caused by employer discrimination, racial income gap, and high unemployment levels held disproportionately by African Americans versus caucasians. Wealth inequality has not improved within the last fifty years. The average wealth has increased, but it has not increased equally among all races. Wealth is essentially a family’s liquid assets. Without wealth, families cannot build a future for