Date of Submission
Fall 2017
Academic Programs and Concentrations
Economics
Project Advisor 1
Michael Martell
Project Advisor 2
Aniruddha Mitra
Abstract/Artist's Statement
Racial wealth inequality is a relentless cycle that operates uniquely in America because it implies that the racial consequences of racism continue to influence decisions made in structures and institutions and create unjust economic relationships between white and Black people in America.(Richard F. America) The recent political discourse alleges, by asserting neoclassical theory, that the wealth divide is resultant of differences in self-determination, prioritization, and work ethic alone varying across racial demographics — reinforcing the assumption that some races of people (Whites and Asians, for example) work harder than others(like Blacks). Therefore, by the transitive property, racial wealth inequality is seen to persist only because Blacks engage in self-sabotaging behaviors that negatively affects their wealth outcomes in adulthood. The demographic of wealth inequality definitely deserves a better justification than an inherent difference in individual productivity and determination across racial groups. In an effort to over generalize an entire demographic group, these perverse assumptions perpetually neglect to consider socio-economic barriers and division and racist structures that have paralyzed Blacks ability to accumulate wealth over the years (Darity 2016; Hamilton 2009-16). These presumption do not take notice of the upward mobility of Black groups in the ranks of the labour system in the United States. They do, however, judge the choices and decisions made by individuals living under poverty. It ignores the extent to which preexisting prejudice and discrimination in the “free market” influence wealth outcomes for people of color. Disregarding the few Blacks who have reviewed an increase in household income there is still high racial wealth inequality affecting the majority of Blacks in America.
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Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Kenneth, Alphonso C., "Institutionalized: How Racial Wealth Inequality Creates a Cycle of Mass Incarceration" (2017). Senior Projects Fall 2017. 32.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_f2017/32
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