The Racial Wealth Gap: Why America Should Discuss Reparations

The United States grapples with a significant problem: the racial wealth gap. Yet attributing this to one factor can be misleading. However, the legacy of slavery and discrimination is an essential factor that remains unaddressed. Centuries of exclusion of wealth-building opportunities created the racial wealth gap. A comprehensive approach is needed, including reparations, policy changes, and a collective shift toward fairness. To start, we must understand who has been affected the most. African American or Black people living in the United States are a diverse group with different classes and ethnic backgrounds. Some distinctions include African American descendants of enslaved people, recent immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean, mixed-race individuals, and other class and socio-economic groups. Therefore, simplifying this complex issue by asking for a single cause of income inequality between Blacks and Whites is not adequate. For instance, some groups who are classified as Black are wealthier than the average American, such as those who classify themselves as Nigerian Americans. Yet, America has often dichotomized racial relations on White and Black spectrums and derived statistical data on racial wealth inequality from this binary standpoint. Some of the causes of income inequality in the U.S. include the historical exclusion of...