Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf
Page Number: 219.0

Cite as:  600 U. S. ____ (2023) 

11 

JACKSON, J., dissenting 

B 
History  speaks.    In  some  form,  it  can  be  heard  forever. 
The race-based gaps that first developed centuries ago are
echoes from the past that still exist today.  By all accounts,
they are still stark.

Start  with  wealth  and  income.    Just  four  years  ago,  in 
2019,  Black  families’  median  wealth  was  approximately 
$24,000.46   For  White  families,  that  number  was  approxi-
mately  eight  times  as  much  (about  $188,000).47    These 
wealth  disparities  “exis[t]  at  every  income  and  education
level,” so, “[o]n average, white families with college degrees 
have over $300,000 more wealth than black families with 
college degrees.”48  This disparity has also accelerated over 
time—from  a  roughly  $40,000  gap  between  White  and
Black  household  median  net  worth  in  1993  to  a  roughly 
$135,000 gap in 2019.49  Median income numbers from 2019 
tell the same story: $76,057 for White households, $98,174 
for  Asian  households,  $56,113  for  Latino  households,  and 
$45,438 for Black households.50 

These financial gaps are unsurprising in light of the link 

—————— 

46 Dickerson  1086  (citing  data  from  2019  Federal  Reserve  Survey  of 
Consumer  Finances);  see  also  Rothstein  184  (reporting,  in  2017,  even
lower median-wealth number of $11,000).

47 Dickerson 1086; see also Rothstein 184 (reporting even larger rela-

tive gap in 2017 of $134,000 to $11,000). 

48 Baradaran 249; see also Dickerson 1089–1090; Oliver & Shapiro 94–

95, 100–101, 110–111, 197. 

49 See Brief for National Academy of Education as Amicus Curiae 14– 

15 (citing U. S. Census Bureau statistics). 

50 Id., at 14 (citing U. S. Census Bureau statistics); Rothstein 184 (re-
porting similarly stark White/Black income gap numbers in 2017).  Early
returns suggest that the COVID–19 pandemic exacerbated these dispar-
ities.  See E. Derenoncourt, C. Kim, M. Kuhn, & M. Schularick, Wealth 
of  Two  Nations:  The  U. S.  Racial  Wealth  Gap,  1860–2020,  p.  22  (Fed. 
Reserve  Bank  of  Minneapolis,  Opportunity  &  Inclusive  Growth  Inst.,
Working Paper No. 59, June 2022) (Wealth of Two Nations); L. Bollinger 
& G. Stone, A Legacy of Discrimination: The Essential Constitutionality
of Affirmative Action 103 (2023) (Bollinger & Stone).