About Bridging the Wealth Gap
On every measure—from homeownership to 401(k) investments—Blacks continue to lag behind whites and every other group on the wealth creation scale. According to The Road to Zero Wealth, published by Prosperity Now and the Institute for Policy Studies, the median wealth of Black Americans will fall to zero by 2053 if current trends continue.
In fact, the latest Federal Reserve Board Survey of Consumer Finances shows that a Black person with a bachelor’s degree has a median net worth of only two-thirds of the median net worth of a white person with no bachelor’s degree. Black women are applauded for being the most educated demographic in the United States, while a single Black woman with a bachelor’s degree aged 20–39 has a median net worth of -$11,000 to $0, while a white woman has a net worth range of $3,400 to $7,500; and married Black women with bachelor’s degree within the same age range have a median net worth of -$20,500 to $7,700, while white women have a net worth range of $18,700 to $97,000. Those are but a few of the alarming statistics on the wealth status of Black Americans.
