DERO SANFORD
THE OTHER
AMERICANS
have had modest advantages when
compared with working-class people of color, most of whom begin far
behind whites’ starting line.”
At the point of birth, that starting line might be thought of as
wealth, a nugget of potentiality and
as-yet-unrealized opportunity that
individuals, families and communities carry with them, nurture, contribute to and pass on, sometimes
HUFFINGTON
10.21.12
in imperceptible ways, to subsequent generations.
Beyond revealing that net worth
for all families plummeted between 2007 and 2010, data from
the Federal Reserve Board’s most
recent survey of consumer finances, released in June, show a
marked and continued disparity in
the size of that carrying resource
among racial groups.
The median value of net worth
for white, non-Hispanic families
in 2010 was about $131,000, ac-
Lakeisha
Davis, 22,
and her
daughter
Josmin, 2, of
Cary, Miss.
Davis has
struggled to
find gainful
employment
in her corner
of the Delta,
where critics
say a lack of
investment
has created
“rural
ghettos.”