May 10, 2017
This fact-sheet is adapted from the Institute report, Bridging the Two Americas: Employment & Economic Opportunity in Newark & Beyond.
Just the Facts:
Bridging the Two Americas: Employment & Economic Opportunity in Newark & Beyond
Racialized Economic Inequality in the United States: There is a record level of economic inequality in the United States right now, but the situation is much worse for people of color, whose economic mobility is so limited as to amount to an economic caste system.
o Nationally, about 16 percent of all people live below the federal poverty line, but people of color have a poverty rate two to three times greater than whites. Three out of every four (74 percent) people of color in the U.S. will be poor at some point during their life, compared to 40 percent of whites.
o People of color simply do not experience economic mobility the way that white people do. Among Black people born in the bottom fifth of the income distribution, half (51 percent) will remain in that bottom quintile at age 40. By comparison, only one-fourth (23 percent) of whites born in the bottom quintile of the income ladder will remain there by age 40.
