Financial transfers grow black wealth only a fraction of what they grow white wealth.

Evidence

In contrast, over the twenty-seven-year period of the study, only 10 percent of black Americans received a financial transfer, with a lower median value of 52,240. Those families saw their wealth grow by only 20,000—more than the black families who didn’t receive transfers at all, but still less than the white families who didn’t receive transfers either. For white households, the median wealth growth for those with and without financial transfers was 282,000 versus 72,000; for black households, the median wealth growth for those with and without financial transfers was 20,000 versus 12,000. Where white families saw their wealth tripled, black families saw it drained. The study concluded that financial transfers did not create wealth for black Americans the way they did for white Americans, and this difference was a significant contributor to the racial wealth gap. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 468

Categorization

• QUESTION: Why do transfers grow black wealth so little even when received — the 20,000 black gain vs. 72,000 white no-transfer gain?