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A recent study by the Corporation for Economic Development and Institute for Policy Studies on the U.S. wealth gap found that if the average Black family wealth continues to grow at the same pace it has over the past 30 years, it would take 228 years to amass the same amount of wealth as White families have today.
Interventions suggested in the study include auditing federal polices, fixing unfair tax incentives, and addressing the “distorting influence” of cent-rationed wealth at the top through expanding progressive taxes and exploring a wealth tax. What wasn’t mentioned was a more direct approach: supporting African American institutions and businesses, particularly credit unions. A similar movement several years ago led by the Occupy movement to transfer funds from large national banks to community banks and credit unions reportedly moved millions into local communities.
Many in the African American community are banking on a similar if not greater response.
African American credit unions make up half of all 651 minority depository institutions (MDIs)—those with a majority ethnic membership and board. The 4.5 million members who own these MDIs represent 4 percent of the total members of all federally insured credit unions.