TITANS OF FRANCHISING
Black Americans: Bridging the Racial Wealth Gap Through Franchising by Seth Lederman, Consultant, The Franchise Consulting Company
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merica's history of racial inequality is strong and pervasive. From Jim Crow laws after Reconstruction to unequal GI Bill allocations to African Americans after World War II, there were multiple ways that Black Americans were prevented from accumulating wealth over the past 150 years. As a result, the wealth gap between Blacks and whites in the U.S. has not budged since the 1950s. For instance, the Census Bureau revealed that disparity had manifested via homeownership. The percentage of Black families that owned a home at the end of 2020 was 44%, while 75% of white families owned a home within the same period. But homeownership isn't the only area affected. Both income and savings are dramatically different between Blacks and whites. The Brookings Institute found that a white household's median net worth was ten times that of a Black household's. Furthermore, if Black Americans' share of the national wealth were proportional to their share of the population, Black
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household wealth would equal more than $12.5 trillion, rather than the just over $2.5 trillion that it is. This creates a wealth gap between the races of more than $10 trillion.
FEBRUARY 2022 | WWW.FRANCHISEJOURNAL.COM
THE PROMISE OF FRANCHISING FOR BLACK AMERICANS One way that Black Americans can level the playing field financially is through
