Study Reveals the Refinement of the White Supremacy System: By 2020 Whites will own 86x more wealth than Blacks

The Racial Wealth Divide is Accelerating. From [Prosperity Now PDF]In our 2016 report, The Ever-Growing Gap: Without Change, African American and Latino Families Won’t Match White Wealth for Centuries, we showed that it if current trends continue, it will take 228 years for the average Black family to reach the level of wealth White families own today. For the average Latino family, matching the wealth of White families will take 84 years.

In this report, we look at the racial wealth divide at the median over the next four and eight years, as well as to 2043, when the country’s population is predicted to become majority non-white. We also look to wealth rather than income to reconsider what it means to be middle class. In finding an ever-accelerating gap, we consider what it means for the American middle class and we explore what policy interventions could reverse the trends we see today. We find that without a serious change in course, the country is heading towards a racial and economic apartheid state.

ILLUSTRATING THE MAGNITUDE OF RACIAL WEALTH DISPARITY

• Earning a middle-class income does not guarantee middle-class economic security. White households in the middle-income quintile (those earning $37,201-$61,328 annually) own nearly eight times as much wealth ($86,100) as middle-income Black earners ($11,000) and ten times as much wealth as middle-income Latino earners ($8,600). This disconnect in income earned and wealth owned is visible across the entire income spectrum between these groups.

• If the middle class were to be defined by wealth rather than by income, Black and Latino families in the middle-income quintile would need to earn 2-3 times as much as White families in order to enter the middle class. If we were to define the middle class in terms of wealth, households would need to own between $68,000-$204,000 in wealth to qualify for the middle class. Under these terms, only Black and Latino households in the highest income-quintile (those earning more than $104,509) would qualify for middle-class status or higher, compared to White households in the top three income-quintiles who already own wealth in excess of this threshold. In fact, only Black and Latino households with an advanced degree have enough wealth to be considered middleclass, whereas all White households with a high school diploma or higher would be considered middle class.

• Defining class in terms of wealth instead of income, roughly 70% of Black and Latino households would fall below the $68,000 threshold needed for middle-class status, whereas only about 40% of White households would fall below the middle class. In contrast, roughly 13% of Black and Latino households could be considered to have “upper-wealth” (meaning they own at least $204,000 in wealth), compared to 40% of White households.

• The accelerating decline in wealth over the past 30 years has left many Black and Latino families unable to reach the middle class. Between 1983 and 2013, the wealth of median Black and Latino households decreased by 75% (from $6,800 to $1,700) and 50% (from $4,000 to $2,000), respectively, while median White household wealth rose by 14% (from $102,200 to $116,800). If current trends continue, by 2020 median Black and Latino households stand to lose nearly 18% and 12%, respectively, of the wealth they held in 2013. In that same timeframe, median White household wealth would see an increase of 3%. Put differently, in just under four years from now, median White households are projected to own 86 and 68 times more wealth than Black and Latino households, respectively.

• By 2024, median Black and Latino households are projected to own 60-80% less wealth than they did in 1983. By then, the continued rise in racial wealth inequality between median Black, Latino and White households is projected to lead White households to own 99 and 75 times more wealth than their Black and Latino counterparts, respectively.

• If the racial wealth divide is left unaddressed and is not exacerbated further over the next eight years, median Black household wealth is on a path to hit zero by 2053—about 10 years after it is projected that racial minorities will comprise the majority of the nation’s population. Median Latino household wealth is projected to hit zero twenty years later, or by 2073. In sharp contrast, median White household wealth would climb to $137,000 by 2053 and $147,000 by 2073.

Race, Wealth & The Middle Class

For several years, politicians, researchers, journalists and the public have focused their attention on growing economic inequality in the United States. Most often, this focus is on income (i.e., the wages earned from a job or from capital gains) rather than on wealth (i.e., the sum of one’s assets minus their debts). Income inequality, while stark, pales in comparison to the vast economic divide exposed by examining disparities in wealth. For example, a recent study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that while the top 10% of income earners in United States receive almost 30% of the nation’s income, the wealthiest 10% own an astounding 76% of the country’s wealth. That means less than a quarter of the nation’s wealth is left for the bottom 90% of the American population.

As stark and as overlooked as these disparities are, they are particularly acute along racial lines as a disproportionate share of the nation’s wealth is held in White hands while households of color own a shrinking slice of the proverbial pie. Today, this translates into a racial wealth divide in which the median net worth of Black and Latino families stands at just $11,000 and $14,000, respectively—a fraction of the $134,000 owned by the median White family. Even more disturbing is that when consumer durable goods such as automobiles, electronics and furniture are subtracted, median wealth for Black and Latino families drops to $1,700 and $2,000, respectively, compared to $116,800 for White households (see Methodology for more details).

While some argue that this racial wealth divide stems from choices made by individuals and communities, the facts tell a different story. Recent research shows that the racial wealth divide persists across all levels of educational attainment and family structures, seriously diminishing the “personal choices” argument. Case in point? White high school dropouts own more wealth than Black and Latino college graduates. Furthermore, single-parent White households own more wealth than two-parent Black households.

Wealth is the buffer families need when faced with unexpected economic shocks like a lost job or a broken-down car. Wealth is also the capital available to families to take advantage of economic opportunities, like buying a home, saving for college or investing in the stock market. Ultimately, wealth can be the difference between a family maintaining and strengthening their economic status or flailing in economic insecurity. [MORE]

Amos Wilson: White Domination - Black Subordination

The following is an excerpt from "Blueprint for Black Power" by Amos Wilson. [MORE]

Manipulation as Power

Manipulation involves the attempt by the manipulator to elicit certain desired responses from his subject while concealing his efforts to do so. In this way the manipulator seeks to constrain, restrict, or prevent certain undesirable actions on the part of his subject and/or j to subtly direct his subject to behave in certain desired ways outside his subject's knowledge and awareness.

Manipulation, involves a more "efficient" exercise of power than force, coercion and influence because it is less likely to evoke resis­tance since the subject is unaware of the effort to influence him or- may think that the manipulator is exercising his influence to achieve an end desired by both the manipulator and the subject himself, when in actuality the subject is being influenced toward an end which may be detrimental to himself and beneficial only to his manipulator. Thus, the manipulated subject may be led to perceive his own re­sponses and behavior as expressions of his own free will and choice. Commonly, manipulation is achieved by skillfully presenting informa­tion, rewards and deprivations in ways which shape the consciousness and behavior of the subject and motivates him to freely '"choose" to act in ways compatible with the concealed intentions of his manipulator.

Wrong notes two important general forms where manipulation may occur:

First, the power holder may exercise concealed control over the power subject through symbolic communications designed to make veiled suggestions, to limit or determine selectively the power subjects' information supply, or to inculcate without appearing to do so certain positive or negative attitudes...

But an equally widespread kind of manipulation occurs where A alters B's environment in such a way as to evoke a desired response from B without interacting directly with B at all.

Wrong further notes that manipulation may involve the most dehumanized, and as far as we are concerned, perhaps the most dehumanizinging exercise of power of all because, unlike the exercise of obstructive physical force, visible coercive and authoritarian power where the intent of his adversaries and the sources of assault and frustration are known to the subject, manipulation "is a form of power that cannot be openly resisted by the power subject since he is unaware of the power holder's intent or even sometimes of his existence. There is no visible command for him to disobey, no identifiable adversary against whom to assert his freedom."

The manipulation of Afrikan American political and economic attitudes by the White ruling elite is designed to effectively secure, enhance and exercise power while not appearing to do so; while appearing to provide Blacks with power or options equal to that or those of Whites. The point of this type of manipulation is to win the acceptance by Blacks of the legitimacy of White power, its moral Integrity, its legitimating ideology, and the acceptance by Blacks of their obligation to obey the directive of White power while believing their obedience to be expressive of their own free and moral will. Only by basing their behavioral orientation on their own Afrikan history, culture, values, interests, consciousness and identity can Blacks prevent their behavioral manipulation by self-serving Whites and act under the influence, of their own self-generated enhanced power.

Summary; White Domination-Black Subordination

All of the forms of power we have discussed as well as those not discussed here when used by Whites to maintain their power over Blacks, add up to one overarching social power relation between Whites and Blacks — White domination, Black subordination.

Social domination occurs when the power of one person or group over another is exercised in a systematic manner at the expense of the dominated person or group. Wartenburg uses the term "domination'' to refer to:

the power that one social agent has over another in situations in which that power is exercised by the dominating social agent repeatedly, systematically, and to the detriment of the dominated agent. The concept of domination therefore refers to a specific manner of exercising power. Such an exercise of power must be one that conditions; the relationship between two agents in a longstandinging manner. "Domination" refers not to a single exercise of power but to a relationship between two social agents that is constituted by the existence of a power differential between them.

Our characterization of the White American-Black American power relationship as one of White domination of Blacks is based on the fact that in large part the White American power structure possesses and uses its ability to adversely affect the welfare of Blacks to further its own interests and to the detriment of those of Blacks.

The subordination of people of color is functional to the operation of American society as we know it and the color of one's skin is a primary determinant of people's position in the social [power] structure. Racism is a structural relationship based on the subordination of one racial group by another. Given this perspective, the determining feature, of race relations is not prejudice toward blacks, but rather the superior position of whites and the institutions — ideological as well as structural — which maintain it.

The power relationship between Blacks and Whites is an interactive one — where While power, to a significant extent, arises out of certain types of social interactions between Whites and Blacks where Blacks unwittingly play a very important role in constituting | and sustaining their powerlessness relative to Whites. White domination of Blacks in our current social context is primarily facilitated by the fact that Blacks think of themselves and of reality in terms created by the self-serving interests and perspectives imposed on them by Whites, and act on the basis of biased and false information provided them by Whites without realizing it. They therefore contribute to their powerlessness and domination by Whites simply by thinking about themselves and reality in a manner thai! allows them to be subjugated. Thus, White domination of Blacks is, to a significant degree, covered-over by ideology, beliefs which Blacks have been conditioned by Whites to unwittingly accept. To this degree, their domination and powerlessness is self-imposed. Blacks obscure their unnecessary domination by Whites and contribute to that domination by their own gullibility and too-ready acceptance of Eurocentric ideloogy and their obsequious willingness to think and act only within the confines of White-generated ideas, social definitions, relations and ethics (not often honored by Whites themselves). Hence, the minds of Blacks are Used to forge the links of their own mental chains,

When Afrikans in the Americas and the world-over choose to critically examine the "received" ideas and biased perceptions of "reality" imposed on them by Europeans and choose to know reality for what it is - to create themselves through gaining a thorough knowledge of self, knowledge of the world, and through studying and acquiring power — they will then have attained the keys to their own liberation.

Even a cursory review of the relations of the social domination of Blacks by Whites demonstrates its repeated, systematic and detri­mental nature. All of the types and forms of power we have so far discussed, as well as others not discussed, have been and are currently used by hegemonic Whites to maintain a system of social domination immensely beneficial to them as it is devastatingly" detrimental to Blacks.

The use of sheer, unadorned physical force as a means of dominat­ing Blacks has been used by Whites from the 18th century to the present moment. It has assumed many forms, from war, captivity, lynching, beating, torture, mob violence, police brutality and repres­sion, to martial law and the like. The threatened use of physical (police and military) force stands behind White power in all its deceptive metamorphoses. But more effective and deeply enduring than the use of physical force or the coercive threat to use it in maintaining the domination of White over Black, is the long-term use by Whites of harshly unrelenting psychic violence against the collective Black persona .For this violence more effectively neutralizes Black opposition to and possible overthrow of White domination than the preponderance of White military might. Psychic violence hobbles the most powerful of human weapons — the human mind and its productive creativity, ingenuity, innovativeness and vision. Moreover, it hobbies the human capacity to develop and press into service the social identity, social consciousness, unity and solidarity, and the cooperative social spirit which combined empower a race to overcome impossible odds posed by other hostile and apparently more powerful races of men.

Psychic violence makes the victimized individual or group vulnerable to the '"soft", yet ultimately more treacherous and effective forms of social domination — social coercion, influence, manipulation, allegedly legitimate and competent authority, and ideological hypnosis. Nothing less than the healing of the wounds occasioned by White-instigated psychic assaults against the collective Afrikan mind, body and spirit can enable Afrikan peoples to regain their liberation. A deep and fundamental transformation of the subordinated Afrikan psyche via the steadfast acquisition of an Afrikan-centered conscious­ness and identity will provide the social-psychological, and if need be, military power tools for breaking through the imprisoning wails of White supremacy.

However, in this liberating Afrikan centered consciousness and identity must be included an indomitable will to Afrikan Power! This will must be informed by a profound knowledge of the means of acquiring and of the excercising of power as well as a strategic and tactical knowledge of the enemy's power. To an examination of these factors we will now turn. [MORE]

MLK and Imaginary Freedom: Chains, Plantations, Segregation, No Longer Necessary ['Our Condition is Getting Worse']

Above Black revolutionary thinker, Naim Akbar.

Above, Dr. Welsing: 'King wasn't a Dreamer. He was willing to give his life in pursuit of justice.'