One Tweet Explains the Racial Wealth Gap

By Carla Murphy Jan 29, 2015

Here’s a thought exercise: How long could you maintain your current standard of living without a paycheck? A week? Six months? The next 20 years? That length of time is a measure of your personal wealth–which is quite different from hourly wages or annual income.

Wealth, in the form of home ownership for most Americans, is real security. It’s what enables families to bounce back from life-changing emergencies and survive into the next generation. (Or the next 20, if you’re related to John D. Rockefeller) With that in mind, consider the racial wealth gap chart below. Perhaps it’s time to talk more about wealth, and not just about wages and income.

Note that "households of color," according to the Corporation for Enterprise Development’s Assets & Opportunity Scorecard, includes Black or African-American; American Indian and Native Alaskan; Asian; Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander; Hispanic or Latino; some other race; two or more races.

(h/t AssetsNAF)