GAINSBOROUGH RUNNER-UP
RUNNER-UP GAINSBOROUGH PRIZE
ISN’T IT TIME AMERICA REALLY PAID BACK ITS DEBTS FOR SLAVERY? By Keval Shah
The racial wealth gap
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ince the end of the Civil War, America has slowly and painfully worked to break down racial barriers and heal the wounds of slavery. This is no better highlighted than the first African American First Lady’s speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. Michelle Obama said:
The story that has brought me to the stage tonight. The story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation, who kept on striving, and hoping, and doing what needed to be done. So that today, I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters two beautiful intelligent black young women play with the dog on the White House lawn.”
It’s now 2020. 12 years ago, America elected its first African-American President, Barack Hussein Obama. Congress is more racially and ethnically diverse than ever – 12% of the US House of Representatives and Senate are black, roughly proportional to the national population. The United States of America is truly living in a post-racial era, right? Well, not exactly… In 1984, African-American families possessed just $4,000 in wealth on average. Wealth is the total financial value of all a family owns from savings and assets, minus any debts including home
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