Wealth?

"When you have a set of resources that allows you to think about your future in a positive way, you can strategize about the future, create and take advantage of opportunity. Otherwise you stay in the present"

-Melvin Oliver

When looking at wealth one must look at assets. Assets include things such as houses, real estate, cash, stocks, bonds, pensions, businesses, cars, works of art, and anything else that can be converted to cash. I bring the issue of wealth up because many are ignorant to the idea that racial differences play a role in one becoming financially successful. Many wish to believe that this success is entirely based on individual behavior. People allow themselves to believe, especially whites, that the "playing field" is now level. If this field we so openly speak about is equal and consistent then please explain why "for every dollar owned by the average white family in the United States, the average family of color has less than one dime"? Tell me why one and four white families receive an inheritance after a parents death compared to one and every twenty African American receives one? Or why white poor people spend a shorter time in proverty and suffer less extreme deprivation than poor people of color? How will we narrow this gap?


"Income feeds your stomach, but assets change your head."

-Melvin Oliver

(Statistics from "Overview: The Roots of The Racial Wealth Divide")