# 5 Big Ideas in Inequality: The Racial Wealth Gap - VI

## Highlights

IDEA 1

#### Reparations for Black American descendants of US slavery

William A. Darity Jr.
Samuel DuBois Cook Distinguished Professor of Public Policy,
African and African American Studies, and Economics
Duke University

 "The Black American population descended from US slavery possesses about 2.5% of the nation's wealth but constitutes about 13% of the nation's population. This disparity results in a situation that would require an additional $10 to$12 trillion to bring the Black share of wealth into proportion with the Black share of the population."
 "In fact, we argue [in From Here to Equality], that there's probably no other way to eliminate that racial wealth disparity but by adopting a program as dramatic as a reparations initiative.Indirect measures or universal programs of a variety of types are simply not going to meet the bill."

#### From Here to Equality

By William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen
University of North Carolina Press, 2020.

IDEA 2

#### Wealth and health

Vicki L. Bogan
Associate Professor
Geller Family Professor of Applied Economics and Management
Charles H.. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
Cornell University

 "COVID has exposed a crucial often underemphasized nexus in the racial wealth gap discussion: the link between household finance and health."

IDEA 3

#### Breaking the chainWealth inequality and postsecondary education

Lorna Jorgensen Wendt Associate Professor of Money, Relationships, and Equality (MORE), School of Human Ecology

 "In 2019 households headed by a Black college graduate had lower median wealth than white households headed by someone with less than a high school degree. We find that compositionally racial inequalities in student loan debt account for a substantial portion of the Black-White wealth gap in young adulthood. If Black young adults had the same debt burden as whites, the racial wealth gap would decrease by approximately 10.5%."

IDEA 4

#### The supply problemResolving the communication barrier

Stephen M. LaFata
Private Wealth Management
UBS Financial Services

DISCUSSION

Peter Q. Blair
Assistant Professor of Education
Co-Director of the Project on Workforce
Harvard University