Title: Black wealth/white wealth
Description: The rise of the black middle class is heralded as evidence of greater racial equality, but why do middle-class blacks possess only fifteen cents for every dollar of wealth held by middle-class whites? Why do 61% of black households have no financial assets at all - twice the rate for white households?

Black Wealth / White Wealth offers a powerful portrait of racial inequality based on an analysis of private wealth. Melvin Oliver and Thomas Shapiro analyze wealth - total assets and debts rather than income alone - to uncover deep and persistent racial inequality in America, and they show how public policies fail to redress the problem.

Drawing on data from over 12,000 households and in-depth interviews with a range of black and white families, the authors chart the ways in which systematic economic barriers have discouraged many blacks and impaired their ability to accumulate wealth. These barriers - historically low wages and limited access to capital, local and state policies, the rise of the modern suburb, and the making of the urban ghetto - limit opportunities for a better life.
Subjects: Moral and ethical aspects, Equality, Wealth, Economic conditions, African Americans, Race relations, Wealth, moral and ethical aspects, African americans, economic conditions, United states, race relations, Social Class, Social Justice, Socioeconomic Factors, Economics
Places: United States