Quote:
Originally Posted by jmecklenborg
The problem is the insinuation that the continued economic condition of black Americans as it exists in 2023 is tied to circumstances from over 60 years ago.
Meanwhile, Asian Americans, a demographic that barely existed numerically in the 1960s, now earns and owns significantly more per capita than white Americans.
The numbers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...usehold_income
Virtually all of the wealth in the United States has been generated in recent decades. We are exponentially more productive and wealthier in 2023 than we were during the 1960s. The GDP reached $1 trillion for the first time in 1970. It is now in excess of $20 trillion.
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Uh dude, the material conditions of black Americans as a whole, especially when you consider data among families who have been in the US for generations before its founding, is still linked to issues in the past, from giving free labor in slavery to legal segregation, redlining, and other methods that have been used in the past to limit the wealth attainment of black folks.
America has always been about family wealth attainment, building generational wealth from many different avenues, such as real estate, business, stocks, etc. If you don’t have property, you are at a disadvantage to building wealth. The Rockefellers are still rich today, as well as Zuckerbergs, Bezoses, and Musks for the future.
If your family was barred from buying a home 65 years ago, every other family that was able to do that now possibly have generational wealth. You know, the type of wealth you can use to send your kids to college, invest in a business, etc. Black people were legally barred from that, to the point that a higher percentage of African Americans even to this day are in poverty compared to their white counterparts.
I guess that’s why President Clinton and co were trying to get more minorities to buy homes to get them to have property and rely less on the government. They knew wealth can be generated through having property that increases in value over time. They were trying to undo the wrongs of the past, but still fucked up since lenders still wanted to profit big time from those who had nothing much to give.
Having to continue to be in poverty also prevents one from securing a mortgage to buy a house. Thus, fewer black folks have even seen much of the wealth that was generated since the 1960s in comparison to white folks.
But, the past still matters. No amount of telling black folks to pull themselves up the bootstraps will change the fact that the game historically was rigged against us and other people. Rich folks, whether rich white folks or whoever, make the rules and have been making the rules since the beginning.