The American wealth gap between Black and White families has not seen any improvement over the last 60 years. Over this period, the wealth gap has steadily increased in favor of Whites, and steep disparities have been observed during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recession.
What encompasses wealth is not only our taxable income, but our stock market investments, valuable assets, and other savings reserves. When looking at American wealth as a whole, Black families have consistently represented just a fraction of the total value of wealth in comparison to their White counterparts, and their share continues to diminish as we have entered into the COVID-19 pandemic recession.
In 1968, the average wealth of a middle-class Black household was $6,674, just less than 10% of the average wealth of a middle-class White household during the same year. According to the Survey of Consumer Finances, which adjusts wealth from 1964 to 2016 for inflation, the average middle-class Black household in 2016 had an accumulated wealth of $13,024, while the average wealth of a White middle-class household was $149,703, displaying an even larger wealth gap than observed in 1968. White wealth has grown in the middle class at a rate far surpassing wealth of Black families, which is also represented by the growing number of White American millionaires and the stagnation of Black wealth within these economic brackets. White American millionaire families have more than doubled from 1992 to 2016, with 15% of White households in 2016 reporting net worth of over $1 million. For Black families, the percentage of millionaires has not grown at all during this same period. From 1992 to 2016, just around 2% of families reported this same net worth every year, and this disparity is consistent in Latinx families as well.
Taking a broader look at wealth across all socioeconomic statuses, in 2019 Black Americans represented approximately one-sixth the wealth of White Americans. According to the 2019 SCF, White households accounted for 86.8% of total wealth in America, while Black households accounted for only 2.9% of total wealth.
The efforts of sweeping legislative changes designed to encourage growth of Black wealth in the wake of the Civil Rights movement have failed as disparities between races continue to grow, both in the economic sector along with nearly every other sphere of life. The COVID-19 pandemic has widened the gap even further, with Black families entering into the pandemic recession far less financially equipped than their white counterparts.
