The Black Wealth Gap: Why We Struggle-- Intro to the Series
Have you ever wondered why it seems that black people suffer disproportionately more than other ethnicities? We seem to always be on the high end of everything negative and the low end of everything positive from birth to death. African Americans have high infant mortality rates, high illiteracy rates, high poverty rates, high incarceration rates, and high unemployment rates. We also tend to have lower incomes, lower homeownership, lower ages for death expectancy, and lower wealth. Are we cursed? Are we inherently doomed to struggle, suffer and have constant pain in life? I often ponder these questions, and to better understand our plight in life; I usually have to look back at our history.
Our story, as a people, plays a big part in our collective trauma, current state, and gaps in equality, including the wealth gap. Today, we will take a brief look at our journey in America, from Colonization to Emancipation. Let's start with the devaluation of our skin using the concept of race. Webster defines race as "groups that humans are often divided into based on physical traits common among people of shared ancestry." Categorizing people by physical characteristics became popular in the colonial days, roughly the 1600's here in America. But the dehumanization of black bodies can be traced back even further, as represented in some Medieval and Renaissance art. The negative images of dark-skinned bodies often shone in servitude or exaggerated or ape-like features led to the dehumanization of those bodies. It also caused a lack of confidence and self-worth among some of its own people.
The ideas surrounding race today started when the first indentured slaves and Africans arrived in America. In Colonial America, separating people based on physical characteristics allowed those in power to identify those enslaved indefinitely from those who were indentured. Intentionally or by happenstance, it also helped create a class system where slaves then and African Americans now reside in a lower class system. American Colonizers established the idea that Native Americans were savages and slaves were subhuman; thus, if you were white, you were of a higher classification or category, and the idea that you should separate yourself from the savage and slave.
When explorers and western colonizers landed in Africa, not only did they ship Africans across the globe as slaves at a cost, they also began to drain Africa of many of its natural resources. Think about it this way. It's like finding gold and the producer of gold. So those colonizers benefited and continue to profit from colonization in many ways, but the slaves (African Americans), Africans, and the continent of Africa is still paying the price. The colonizers have been able to leave inheritances to their offspring, and we inherit nothing but the trauma our ancestors had to endure generation after generation.
Slavery, that 200 plus years of Black bondage and free labor in America, was a catalyst for American wealth and African American debt. I will not dwell on this because we all know the story. Our ancestors were deemed less than human, bought and sold like property, worked like machines, beaten like dogs, and were not paid a dime. During this time, their bodies were mutilated and raped, and they were forced to assimilate and deny their culture, treated worse than dogs, and counted three/fifths humans. Did I mention that they did not get paid?
So yeah, there is a wealth gap; it started when our ancestors were taken against their will. It continued when the resources in their homeland were looted and claimed by foreigners. The wealth gap was shored up when we were separated and classified by race and sold into slavery. Then after working for nearly 250 years for free, while others reaped the financial reward of that labor, puts us at least 246 years behind and counting.
Stay tuned; the counting continues next week with "The Black Wealth Gap: From Emancipation to Jim Crow. Sophia Brewer (M.L.I.S.) is Collection Development and Serials Librarian, Grand Rapids Community College; Co-President of the Greater Grand Rapids History Council; member of the Grand Rapids Study Club and serves on the Grand Rapids Public Library, Board of Library Commissioners (Elected 2016-2021). She is a former Head of Programs, Grand Rapids Public Library and former Branch Manager, Madison Square Branch, Grand Rapids Public Library
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