Individual behavioral remedies cannot close a wealth gap built on centuries of state-enabled plunder

Evidence

To summarize, none of the actions we are told Black people must take if they want to “lift themselves” out of poverty and gain financial stability—not marrying, not getting an education, not saving more, not owning a home—can mitigate four hundred years of racialized plundering. Wealth begets wealth, and white Americans have had centuries of government assistance to accumulate wealth, while the government has for the vast history of this country worked against Black Americans’ efforts to do the same. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1378

Categorization

• XREF: Directly answers the reader’s core question — whether the gap is deviation or design; also echoes the ‘origin stories are infrastructure’ framing.