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By La June Montgomery Tabron
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<p>By La June Montgomery Tabron Feb. 23, 2016</p>
<p> The Hidden Lives of America’s Poor and Middle Class The Hidden Lives of America’s Poor and Middle Class This series explores how current programs and policies for helping families escape poverty, build stability, move up the ladder, and invest in the future need to change.</p>
<p>Research from the recent US Financial Diaries project has directed a much-needed spotlight on the economic challenges that low- and middle-income families face across the United States. Shocks that began in investment markets post-recession have reverberated for nearly a decade, leading to income volatility and significant declines in wealth. These challenges remain a barrier to many families’ ability to weather unanticipated financial storms and achieve greater economic security.</p>
<p>At the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, we simply cannot disconnect this economic reality from other, equally important issues, including the persistent wealth gap affecting families of color and related, structural impediments to equality. </p>
<p>The Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances found that the 2007 housing and financial markets crash reduced the net worth of almost all American families. Yet it hit African American families hardest, triggering the widest wealth gap between white and black households since 1989. The wealth of African American households was more concentrated in home ownership (59 percent) compared to white households (44 percent), which included more stock market investments. During the recession, home values went down and foreclosure rates went up, resulting in black households losing more wealth than white households. In 2013, for example, the wealth of white households was 13 times the median wealth of black households and more than 10 times the wealth of Hispanic households. </p>
<p>Perpetuating these disparities are housing segregation and wage stagnation for lower-skilled workers, and an inequitable educational system that fails to help the current and next generation of workers of color acquire the essential skills they need for higher-skilled employment. The Pew Research Center, for example, shows median incomes for people of color fell 9 percent from 2010 to 2013, compared with a decrease of 1 percent for white households.</p>
<p><a href="http://ssir.org/articles/entry/closing_the_wealth_gap_for_families_of_color">MORE>></a></p>
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<p> The Hidden Lives of America’s Poor and Middle Class The Hidden Lives of America’s Poor and Middle Class This series explores how current programs and policies for helping families escape poverty, build stability, move up the ladder, and invest in the future need to change.</p>
<p>Research from the recent US Financial Diaries project has directed a much-needed spotlight on the economic challenges that low- and middle-income families face across the United States. Shocks that began in investment markets post-recession have reverberated for nearly a decade, leading to income volatility and significant declines in wealth. These challenges remain a barrier to many families’ ability to weather unanticipated financial storms and achieve greater economic security.</p>
<p>At the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, we simply cannot disconnect this economic reality from other, equally important issues, including the persistent wealth gap affecting families of color and related, structural impediments to equality. </p>
<p>The Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances found that the 2007 housing and financial markets crash reduced the net worth of almost all American families. Yet it hit African American families hardest, triggering the widest wealth gap between white and black households since 1989. The wealth of African American households was more concentrated in home ownership (59 percent) compared to white households (44 percent), which included more stock market investments. During the recession, home values went down and foreclosure rates went up, resulting in black households losing more wealth than white households. In 2013, for example, the wealth of white households was 13 times the median wealth of black households and more than 10 times the wealth of Hispanic households. </p>
<p>Perpetuating these disparities are housing segregation and wage stagnation for lower-skilled workers, and an inequitable educational system that fails to help the current and next generation of workers of color acquire the essential skills they need for higher-skilled employment. The Pew Research Center, for example, shows median incomes for people of color fell 9 percent from 2010 to 2013, compared with a decrease of 1 percent for white households.</p>
<p><a href="http://ssir.org/articles/entry/closing_the_wealth_gap_for_families_of_color">MORE>></a></p>
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