An astonishing graph

[owlectomy]

Median wealth holdings of white families and African-American families, 1984-2007.

Don't miss the bottom graph which breaks it down into "high-income" and "middle-income."

Comments

[antarcticlust]

But, but, but--we live in a post-racial society!! /sarcasm

[daedala]

I don't know if it is good or bad that I'm not astonished, just appalled. :(

[meaghansketch]

Sometimes I play Civ, (and yes, I'm aware that it's extremely problematic in many ways, bear with me, it's relevant) and sometimes I'm stuck on an island at the beginning of the game, and maybe I don't have the best resources on my island... And I stick with the game at least a little while, to see how long it will take to meet the rival civilizations, and maybe they won't be too, too far ahead of me technologically and in terms of their power level, and so I just try my hardest until I meet them.... And then I discover optics, and can build caravels, and I meet all the other civilizations, and they're all bigger than me, and all have more technology, and all have better armies, and I try to keep playing, but every turn they just keep getting further ahead... More population means more scientific research, more scientific research means more technology, more technology means better economy, better economy means the ability to build a bigger army... And sometimes I keep playing until one of them invades my little island, but more often than not I just quit at that point, because there's no point to me playing. When the other players (or AIs, as the case may be) are so far ahead, there's no way you can catch up.

Wealth begets wealth-- you need money to make money. And that's doubly true when our political and societal structure ensures that the wealthy stay wealthy and the powerful stay in power.