种族财富差距并未改善

想过没有，万一我们对种族、行为和人类发展进程的理解都是错误的呢？

最近有一份题为《白人的资产价值：理解种族财富差距》的报告发布，意在推翻传统上非裔美国人和拉丁裔美国家庭与白人之间财富差距缺乏改善的解释。

报告为自由公共政策研究组织Demos和位于布兰迪斯大学海勒社会政策和管理学院（Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management）的资产和社会研究所（Institute for Assets & Social Policy）合作出品。报告称，“没有比与种族财富差距更能凸显相关持续存在的各种族人群经济不平等现象。”报告引用了美联储（Federal Reserve）对消费者财务状况的调查称，2013年白人家庭拥有净财富中位数为黑人家庭财富的13倍。当年白人家庭拥有净财富中位数为拉丁裔家庭财富的10倍。这还只是开始。

接下来的现实更严峻。报告显示一些推动白人家庭成功的因素，以及其他人生活改善的因素并不能确保有色人种家庭财富持续增长和保障财富安全。

具体来说有以下几点：

• 上大学并未缩小种族财富差距。

• 双亲家庭共同抚育孩子并未缩小种族财富差距。

• 全职工作并未缩小种族财富差距。

• 减少支出并未缩小种族财富差距。

底线是，对有色人种来说，拼命努力工作，把所有事情都做好仍然无法提升财务状况。

“我们的研究显示，涉及财富时，种族优势会超越大学教育的作用，而大学教育是改变数百万人经济阶层的根本要素。虽然对美国各种族来说，更高的教育水平通常意味着更多家庭财富，但上大学不能完全消除人种对财富水平的影响，”Demos的政策和研究副总监艾米·特劳博向raceAhead表示。“情况迫切，急需决策者理解种族财富差距，制定政策扭转现状。”

之所以得出该结论，部分原因是历史上有色人种的生活会直接影响现代人的状态。即便堪称典范的退伍军人法案（GI Bill）等政府安抚行为，也曾排除黑人退伍兵购房补助资格。跟很多其他措施一样，该政策促进了白人中产阶级形成，却从未理会其他种族。

但需要认真考虑的不仅是决策者。企业资助者每年斥资数百美元推进教育和社区发展，结果影响到的高层政策却在纵容种族差异增大。企业在受财富差距影响的有色人种员工生活方面影响也很大，企业会重新考虑一系列细节，包括如何呈现和推动401(k)养老保险计划，以及理解缺乏家庭财富如何影响有色人工员工的职业选择等。

要接受发一段并不久远之前的阴暗历史并不容易，毕竟那是一个影响十分广泛，导致几百万家庭在黑奴制废除几代后仍然生活贫苦的制度。不过只要对背景有所了解，就可以改变谈话的深度。只有通过深刻讨论，才有可能找到真正的解决之道。（财富中文网）

译者：夏林

What if everything we thought we knew about race, behavior, and progress was wrong?

A new report out recently called The Asset Value of Whiteness: Understanding the Racial Wealth Gap purports to shatter traditional explanations for the lack of financial progress in African American and Latinx households as compared to white ones in the U.S.

The report is a collaboration between Demos, a liberal public policy research organization, and the Institute for Assets & Social Policy (IASP) at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management. “No metric more powerfully captures the persistence and growth of economic inequality along racial and ethnic lines than the racial wealth gap,” says the report. Citing data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, the median white household had $13 in net wealth for every dollar held by the median black household in 2013. That same year, median white households had $10 for each dollar held by the median Latinx household. But that’s just for starters.

Here's the tough part. The report shows that typical markers of success in white households – and the chosen interventions in the lives of others – are not translating into lasting wealth and security in households of color.

Specifically:

• Attending college does not close the racial wealth gap.

• Raising children in a two-parent household does not close the racial wealth gap.

• Working full time does not close the racial wealth gap.

• Spending less does not close the racial wealth gap.

Bottom line, for people of color, working ourselves to the bone and doing all the right things is getting us nowhere.

“Our research shows that when it comes to wealth, racial privilege can outweigh a college education, a fundamental key to economic mobility for millions of people. Although higher education is associated with greater household wealth for Americans of every race and ethnicity, going to college isn’t enough to overcome deeply rooted racial disparities in wealth," Amy Traub, associate director of policy and research at Demos told raceAhead. “Now more than ever we need policymakers to understand the racial wealth gap and create policies that reverse it.”

Part of that understanding comes from the direct link that history plays in the lives of people of color today, and how even exemplary government efforts like the GI Bill largely excluded black veterans from favorable financing for home ownership. It, along with other interventions, built the white middle class while leaving others permanently behind.

But it’s not just policymakers who need to think this through. Corporate funders spend millions of direct and matching dollars for education and community development programs every year, and as a result, are in a position to influence the bigger policy forces that continue to allow barriers to advancement. They’re also in a position to make a real difference with their employees of color who are living with that wealth gap - by reconsidering a wide variety of things, like how they present and promote their 401(k)s, to understanding how a lack of family wealth impacts an employee of color's ability to make career decisions.

It's hard to accept a history that's not really in the past, and that a widespread system has left millions of families with limited options, even generations after slavery. But just understanding the context changes the conversation. And only then can real solutions be found.