Charlene Crowell: Black neighborhoods, shopping districts stripped of $406 billion as racial wealth gap continues

by Charlene Crowell (TriceEdneyWire.com) —For America, Black History Month brings opportunities to revisit our nation’s lessons, achievements, and unfulfilled promises, capturing our attention as well as our hopes. Yet nothing hits home harder than the painful reminders of how so much of Black America continues to struggle financially, despite an economy that reports low unemployment, a robust stock market, and low inflation.& Whether discussing kitchen table economics, or yesteryear’s grievances, money—or the lack thereof—is an ongoing and dominant concern. Now is a good time to examine the policies and practices& contributing to why Black wealth remains so elusive for people whose work ethic is often far larger than their paychecks.& The Federal Reserve’s recently updated& Survey of Consumer Finance 2019-2022,& analyzes post-pandemic trends—particularly as they affect racial wealth gaps.& In 2022, Asian-Americans had a typical family wealth of $536,000, the highest of any race or ethnicity, and nearly twice the typical White family’s wealth of $285,000. But these six-figure wealth assets did not& include either Black or Latino households. Instead, a typical Latino family held only about 20 percent of the wealth of the typical White family (about $61,600), and Black family wealth was even lower at $44,900, only 15...