Some Historical Reasons for the Racial Wealth Gap
African Americans and other minorities hold far less wealth than whites. But why should the wealth gap be so large, greater even than the
racial income gap? It turns out that government has played a central role. Throughout U.S. history, countless specific laws, policies, rules,
and court decisions have made it more difficult for nonwhites to build wealth, and transferred wealth they did own to whites. Here are
some examples
Native Americans:
Ø When European settlers came to the U.S., Indian tribes in general did not consider land to be
a source of individual wealth. Europeans believed land was owned by individuals and used it to
generate private profit
Ø Over 400 treaties signed in first century of U.S.
o
Indians forcibly removed from land
Ø 1862 Homestead Act
o
Transfers vast amounts of land from Indian tribes to white homesteaders giving any white family 160 acres
of land for free if they farm it for 5 years
Ø Legal concept of "trust responsibility" for Native nations
o
o
Money from sale of land or natural resources placed in trust fund and managed for "best interest of tribes"
Government mis-management rampant, but tribes aren't allowed to fire manager
Ø Dawes Act of 1887
o
Pressure Indians to assimilate; breaks up reservations into individual plots and force Indian to farm
"western" style; "surplus" land sold to whites (millions acres transferred from Native Americans to whites)
Ø 1953 – U.S. government terminates trust status of tribes
o
Supposed to free Indians from government control but also included loss of tribally held land
African Americans:
Ø From earliest years of European settlement until 1860s, African American considered assets
for their owners – bought and sold, created more wealth from slaves' children
Ø Slaves and their labor basis of wealth creation for plantation owners, people who owned and
operated slave ships, and companies that insured them
Ø End of Civil War
o
o
o
Freedmen's Bureau and occupying Union Army – distribute land to ex-slaves – "Forty Acres and a Mule"
Freedmen's Bureau disbands after seven years – most land of slaves returned to former white owners
Slaves become sharecroppers – perpetually in debt
Ø 1883 – Supreme Court overturned Civil Rights Act of 1875 which had given blacks right to
protect themselves and their property
Ø By 1900 – southern states passed laws that keep African Americans separate and unequal
Ø Some African-American families and communities prosper despite all this, but often targets of
vigilantes – destroy homes, businesses, lynching
o
Example: African-American business district in north Tulsa, known as "Black Wall Street," torched on June
21, 1921 by white rioters – destroyed about 600 black-owned businesses
Ø New Deal
o
African Americans often barred from new asset-building programs benefiting whites:
§
Significant black occupations of domestic and agricultural work excluded from Social Security,
unemployment insurance, and minimum wage.
Ø Post WWII:
o
Veteran benefits, such as GI Bill of Rights provide little benefits for Blacks because so many colleges don't
accept them; housing discrimination means less benefits for low interest mortgages.
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Latinos:
(example here mostly about Mexico and Mexicans – largest Latino population in us and the one with the
longest particular history
Ø 1824 Monroe Doctrine
o
Promised newly independent nations of Latin America "protection" from European powers, but actually
allowed U.S. to intervene and political and economically dominate Mexico and Central and South America
causing "push and pull" for people in and out of U.S.
Ø Mexicans and Anglos fight together to free Texas from Mexican rule creating "lone Star
Republic of Texas" – annexed to U.S. in 1845.
Ø 1848 – Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo – gives U.S. half of Mexico's land – land transferred from
Mexicans to Anglos – racial categories used to determine who can obtain land
Ø 1924 – first U.S. Mexico border patrol; deportations common
Ø During WWII – Bracero program – Mexican workers brought to U.S. to work for sub-minimum
wages, then kicked out when labor not needed
Ø Latino workers disproportionately represented in occupations not covered by Social Security
Act
Ø North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Central American Free Trade Agreement,
Free Trade Agreement of the Americas
o
New "incarnation" of Monroe Doctrine – Trade and immigration polities used to maintain U.S. control over
resources and oppress workers
Asian Americans:
Ø Chinese first large wave of Asian immigrants
o
o
o
Naturalization Act of 1790 limited eligibility for citizenship to "whites"
Many court cases to determine who was white. Lawsuits filed by Chinese, then Japanese, Indian (South
Asian) and Filipino.
Confusing outcomes – South Asians, for instance, classified as Caucasian and white, then in later cases
classified as Caucasian, but not white
Ø Chinese immigrants involved in Gold Rush, but Foreign Miners Tax designed to push them out
of mining
Ø Chinese Exclusion Acts 1882 – first nationality to be denied right to join "immigrant" nation
Ø Japanese immigration
o
o
o
At first successful farmers and business people.
Resentment leads to 1924 Alien Land Act, prohibited non-citizens from owning land
WWII – 1942 Roosevelt administration forces Japanese Americans to relocate to internment camps – have
a week to sell homes and businesses to whites at "fire sale prices"
Based on Doubly Divided by Meizbu Lui
Note what you inherit from your familystatus, connections (cultural and social capital) $$, land, etc.
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