copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2024-06-25): Biden got a Half True rating for saying, "The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years." Economists use two measures to assess the racial wealth gap, and Biden’s statement covered only one of them. [...] Black earnings have continued to trail white earnings by fairly consistent margins. [...] PolitiFact, "What President Joe Biden got right, and what he missed, about the racial wealth gap," Jan. 12, 2024
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2024-04-12): In direct contrast, closing the racial wealth gap has been central to the Biden-Harris Administration’s economic agenda, and the progress we are making under the President’s leadership is delivering for communities nationwide, including Black Americans. The President’s announcements today to build on this progress include: [...] Rooting out bias in appraisals can help narrow the racial wealth gap. According to a recent study, eliminating racial disparities in the amount of wealth families gain from owning a home would narrow the wealth gap by 16% between Black and white households and by 41% between Latino and white households. [...] Increasing federal investments in under-resourced businesses not only helps more Americans realize their entrepreneurial dreams and strengthens the supplier base, but also narrows persistent wealth disparities. According to analysis from the White House Council of Economic Advisers, eliminating racial disparities in business ownership rates would narrow the wealth gap by an additional 22% between Black and white households and by an additional 17% between Latino and white households. Recognizing this historic opportunity, in 2021, the President set a bold goal of increasing the share of the more than $630 billion in contracting dollars going to SDBs each year, including Black, Latino and Asian American-owned small businesses, to 15% by 2025—or an increase of 50% from 2010.
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2024-01-15): Is racial wealth gap 'smallest it's been in 20 years,' as President Joe Biden said? [...] "We’re growing back Black wealth, but we have a lot more to do," he said Jan. 8 in Charleston at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the South’s oldest Black church. "The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years, under my watch. More Black small businesses are starting up than in decades. Opening a new business (is) the ultimate act of hope." [...] By one measure, the white-Black wealth ratio, that’s true. In 2022, that ratio modestly reduced to the smallest it’s been in 20 years.
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2024-04-25): Wealth inequality is higher in the United States than in almost any other developed country and has risen for much of the past 60 years. Racial wealth inequities have persisted for generations, reflecting the long-standing effects of racist policies, not individual intentions or deficits. In a nation that professes that those who work hard and play by the rules should be rewarded with social and economic upward mobility, these persistent disparities are a stark reminder that, as a society, we have not achieved this goal. [...] Research shows that even at higher income levels racial wealth gaps remain. People of color often have additional familial financial responsibilities and fewer inheritances, so having a higher income may not be enough to accumulate wealth at rates similar to those of white families. Baby bonds (or "child trusts") and reparations for Black American descendants of slavery could help close these gaps. [...] Facilitating intergenerational transfers, including through wills and legal property transfers, is essential to narrowing wealth disparities. State and local governments as well as nonprofits and philanthropies could support wealth building among people of color by offering estate-planning assistance, particularly geared toward low-income communities.
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2024-03-09): We are pleased that the racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years, and that there is historic job growth and small business growth for minorities, including Black, Hispanic and Asian-Americans. We applaud the president’s efforts to provide affordable high-speed internet for every American—regardless of where they live—to help empower low-income communities and make it easier for Americans to obtain and maintain jobs, whether they’re in the public or private sectors, or in at-will or union employment.
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2023-11-13): If Black and white individuals had identical savings and capital gains rates over time–which the research shows they did not–the racial wealth gap today would be about 3 to 1. Simply put, the gap was so large post-Emancipation that even equal earnings and savings rates between Black and white individuals would have resulted in a wealth gap that, though half what it is today, would have Black individuals holding about 30 cents for every $1 held by white individuals. [...] The authors write that their findings cast a spotlight on the fact that today’s Black-white wealth gap is a direct legacy of slavery and the discriminatory institutions that followed it–and likely wouldn’t have entirely closed even with policies that reduced inequities in investment returns and savings among Black and white Americans. Policies that target unequal returns on wealth or savings rates can help close the racial wealth gap, they say, but it could still take several hundred more years for Black wealth to match white wealth.
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2020-02-27): This week, my colleagues hosted a discussion on the policies that the 2020 presidential candidates should focus on in order to help black workers in the economy. One of the challenges that the presidential candidates should discuss is how to reduce the black–white wage gap—which has stubbornly persisted over the last four decades. Black-white wage gaps are large and have gotten worse in the last 20 years. [...] The black–white wage gap is smallest at the bottom of the wage distribution, where the minimum wage serves as a wage floor. The largest black–white wage gap as well as the one with the most growth since the Great Recession, is found at the top of the wage distribution, explained in part by the pulling away of top earners generally as well as continued occupational segregation, the disproportionate likelihood for white workers to occupy positions in the highest-wage professions. It’s clear from the figure that education is not a panacea for closing these wage gaps. Again, this should not be shocking, as increased equality of educational access—as laudable a goal as it is—has been shown to have only small effects on class-based wage inequality, and racial wealth gaps have been almost entirely unmoved by a narrowing of the black–white college attainment gap, as demonstrated by William Darity Jr. and others.
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2016-06-27): The wealth gap between black and white households has widened since 1983, when the median wealth of white households ($98,700) was eight times that of the wealth of black households ($12,200). The gap narrowed in the 1990s and early 2000s but increased in the years following the Great Recession. [...] The wealth gap between white and Hispanic households has been consistently large. In 2013, the net worth of white households was roughly 10 times that of households headed by a Hispanic ($14,000). In comparison, in 1983, the wealth of white households was about 11 times that of Hispanic households ($9,000). [...] The racial and ethnic differences in median net worth are driven in part by differences in homeownership. White householders have consistently higher rates of homeownership than racial and ethnic minorities. For instance, 72% of white householders own their own home, compared with 43% of black householders. As is the case with household wealth, the white-black gap in homeownership is also widening somewhat; in 1976, the homeownership rate among blacks was 44% vs. 69% for whites.
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2019-02-28): The current racial wealth gap is the consequence of many decades of racial inequality that imposed barriers to wealth accumulation either through explicit prohibition during slavery or unequal treatment after emancipation. Examples of postemancipation barriers include legally mandated segregation in schools and housing, discrimination in the labor market, and redlining, which reduced access to capital in black neighborhoods. And while the existence of a racial wealth gap may not be altogether surprising, it may be surprising how little the racial wealth gap has changed over the past half century, even after the passage of civil rights legislation. In fact, the 2016 wealth gap is roughly the same as it was in 1962, two years before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). Average white wealth in 19622 was 7 times that of average black wealth. The persistence of the racial wealth gap can be seen in figure 1, which plots the distributions of wealth in 2016 dollars for black and white households in the years 1962 and 2016. While there has been growth in wealth over time for both racial groups (as evidenced by the rightward shift between the solid and dashed lines), notice that the dashed line corresponding to black households in 2016 is still to the left of the solid line for white households in 1962. Simply put, over the past 50 years, the distribution of black wealth has not even "caught up" to the distribution of white wealth in 1962.
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2022-06-23): Earlier this year, J.P. Morgan Chase committed $20 million to help close the racial wealth gap in Baltimore City. Of that $20 million, $5 million has been allocated over three years to support the economic mobility of Black and Latina women in West Baltimore through the P.O.W.E.R. Collaborative, and another $2 million has been allocated to Parity Homes to create 200 new homeownership opportunities for low-income households.
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2024-09-28): The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years. —USA TODAY, 8 Mar. 2024 [...] Closing the racial wealth gap is at the top of SheaMoisture’s Christmas list this year. — [...] As a result, the country has retained one of the world’s highest racial wealth gaps. —
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2024-06-06): When President Biden traveled to Philadelphia last week to kick off a new effort to win over Black voters, he boasted that the gulf in wealth between White and Black Americans had narrowed on his watch. "The racial wealth gap is the lowest it’s been in 20 years because of our efforts," Biden said. [...] The racial wealth gap has narrowed by one measure — but grown by another one. The data on which Biden is relying starts in 2019, making it tough to untangle how much credit he can claim for the rise in Black wealth and how much belongs to former president Donald Trump.
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2024-06-26): Biden got a Half True rating for saying, "The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years." Economists use two measures to assess the racial wealth gap, and Biden’s statement covered only one of them. [...] Black earnings have continued to trail white earnings by fairly consistent margins. [...] Another metric, the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, conducted every three years, tracks with what the Census Bureau found. The 2022 Fed survey, the first conducted since 2019, found that 11% of Black households held equity in a business, far higher than the previous record of 6.6% in 2016 and the 4.8% recorded in 2019.
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2024-06-10): DURHAM, N.C. – In his 2024 State of the Union address, President Joe Biden said the country’s racial wealth gap is the smallest it has been in 20 years. However, a new paper from three collaborators at the Samuel DuBois Cook Center for Social Equity at Duke University provides an important correction: The modern racial wealth gap is in fact growing, in large part because of the cumulative impact of the country’s racial history, and intergenerational transfers of wealth from older generations to younger ones. [...] Why is this? A traditional view of how the racial wealth gap has developed — and might be alleviated — centers on human capital. It posits that Black households have lower levels of educational attainment, which in turn generates lower earnings and lower savings that can lead to wealth. By this logic, to eliminate the wealth gap, one must first eliminate the earnings gap.
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2024-01-18): Since 2010, the wealth disparity between Black and white families has persistently expanded. From the very first Survey of Consumer Finances in 1983, the smallest difference between Black and white family wealth was $123,910 in 1992, and has steadily climbed since, peaking in 2022. Figure 2 shows that from 1989 to 2022, the Black-white median wealth gap has averaged $172,000, and rarely dropped below 10% of this. However, between 2019 and 2022, the gap breeched 10% of the average—signaling an increase in disparity not seen since 2007, when the gap reached $214,970. The growing disparity means that in 2022, for every $100 in wealth held by white households, Black households held only $15. [...] While growth in Black ownership of businesses and homes is a positive step forward, it is not enough to combat the compounding effect of wealth. In lieu of significant policy changes that impact wealth accumulation and distribution, racial inequality will likely continue to grow. Efforts to close this racial wealth gap include progressive tax policies in which the average tax burden increases with wealth and income, or reparations from the private and public sector. In tandem, both will act to ease immediate disparities and put us on a path of reconvergence so that racial wealth equity might be seen in our lifetime.
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2023-10-20): A simple calculation puts the persistent and policy-driven black-white wealth gap into perspective. Consider that the racial wealth gap—measured as the ratio of median black wealth to median white wealth—slightly narrowed from 2013 to 2016. (see Table 1) If this pattern continued over time and with no major policy changes, it would take more than 20 years just to return to the racial wealth gap that existed in 1998. Moreover, it would take more than 200 years for median black wealth to equal median white wealth. Leaving wealth inequality to market forces would likely create a massive gulf in economic opportunity and security by race. That said, shrinking the black-white wealth gap in a meaningful way will undoubtedly require large, targeted policy interventions.
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2024-02-28): - Black wealth gains did not, however, narrow the racial wealth divide to any meaningful degree: A three percentage-point contraction in the Black-White wealth divide still leaves a chasm of nearly 85% between the groups. [...] Racial Wealth Gap Over Time [...] These significant gains in the overall wealth of US households also reduced the racial wealth gap – just not nearly enough to constitute a victory. Black household wealth increased from 12.7% to only 15.5% of median White household wealth between 2019 and 2022.
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2020-01-09): As a result, the wealth gap between America’s richest and poorer families more than doubled from 1989 to 2016. In 1989, the richest 5% of families had 114 times as much wealth as families in the second quintile, $2.3 million compared with $20,300. By 2016, this ratio had increased to 248, a much sharper rise than the widening gap in income.13
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2022-10-03): The economists’ analysis suggests that, more than 150 years after the end of slavery, today’s racial wealth gap is the legacy of very different wealth conditions after emancipation. While the White-Black income gap has narrowed over time, differences in Black and White Americans’ capital gains rates and savings rates throughout history have slowed the convergence (closing the gap) between Black and White wealth. [...] The thirty years following emancipation saw rapid narrowing of the racial wealth gap, falling from a ratio of 56 to 1 in 1860 on the eve of the Civil War to 23 to 1 in 1870 following emancipation and 11 to 1 in 1900. (In 2019 dollars, that comes to average wealth of $34,000 for a White American and $3,100 for a Black American.) White slaveholders’ loss of slaves as "wealth" explains about a quarter of this convergence. The rest was due to a higher wealth accumulation rate for Black Americans than White Americans. [...] Between 1900 and 1930, the racial wealth gap narrowed tepidly, at a rate around 0.3 percent a year. During this period, Black Americans’ share of national wealth stayed fairly constant, at 1 percent (Figure 2).
Claim: “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (Joe Biden, 2024-01-08)
Evidence (2023-02-21): The Opportunity Index: A Solution-Based Framework to Dismantle the Racial Wealth Gap [...] In The Opportunity Index, author Gavin Lewis - Managing Director at BlackRock and co-founder of the #TalkAboutBlack movement - carefully explains the origins of the racial wealth gap and its impact on the inequities facing the Black community today. Weaving a personal and moving narrative with a discussion of some of the most disruptive events of our time, Lewis offers a roadmap for businesses and people seeking to understand the risks presented by inequality and unlock opportunities. The world is significantly wealthier than it was 100, 50, or even 20 years ago but it is no secret that this wealth has not been distributed equally. Importantly, a racial wealth gap between Black and White communities persists, with Black people having significantly smaller net worths than their White counterparts.
Claim: Food and Drug Administration approval for updated COVID-19 vaccines requires a public health emergency declaration. (Jeffrey Barke, 2024-08-23)
Evidence (2024-08-23): The COVID-19 public health emergency’s end doesn’t affect the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s authority to issue new emergency use authorizations related to the novel coronavirus. That’s because a public health declaration and an emergency use authorization declaration are issued under two distinct laws. Although the Health and Human Services secretary ended the public health emergency in May 2023, the emergency use authorization declaration, last amended in March 2023, remains in effect, as COVID-19 remains a potential threat for a public health emergency.
Claim: Food and Drug Administration approval for updated COVID-19 vaccines requires a public health emergency declaration. (Jeffrey Barke, 2024-08-23)
Evidence (2024-08-22): FDA Approves and Authorizes Updated mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines to Better Protect Against Currently Circulating Variants - For Immediate Release: Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved and granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (2024-2025 formula) to include a monovalent (single) component that corresponds to the Omicron variant KP.2 strain of SARS-CoV-2. The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have been updated with this formula to more closely target currently circulating variants and provide better protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death. Today’s actions relate to updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by ModernaTX Inc. and Pfizer Inc. [...] The updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccines include Comirnaty and Spikevax, both of which are approved for individuals 12 years of age and older, and the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, both of which are authorized for emergency use for individuals 6 months through 11 years of age.
Claim: Food and Drug Administration approval for updated COVID-19 vaccines requires a public health emergency declaration. (Jeffrey Barke, 2024-08-23)
Evidence (2024-08-30): FDA Authorizes Updated Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine to Better Protect Against Currently Circulating Variants - For Immediate Release: Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for an updated version of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine that more closely targets currently circulating variants to provide better protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death. The updated vaccine is authorized for use in individuals 12 years of age and older. It includes a monovalent (single) component that corresponds to the Omicron variant JN.1 strain of SARS-CoV-2. "The COVID-19 vaccines have had a tremendous positive impact on public health and vaccination continues to be the most effective method for COVID-19 prevention," said Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. "COVID-19 continues to be a very real risk for many people, and we encourage individuals to consider getting an updated COVID-19 vaccine when eligible. Today’s authorization provides an additional COVID-19 vaccine option that meets the FDA’s standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality needed to support emergency use authorization."
Claim: Food and Drug Administration approval for updated COVID-19 vaccines requires a public health emergency declaration. (Jeffrey Barke, 2024-08-23)
Evidence (2023-09-11): New COVID vaccines get FDA approval The Food and Drug Administration approved a new round of vaccines against COVID-19. [...] "Vaccination remains critical to public health and continued protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death," said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, in a statement. "The public can be assured that these updated vaccines have met the agency's rigorous scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality. We very much encourage those who are eligible to consider getting vaccinated."