Why the Wealth Gap Between Blacks and Whites is Growing: A new study (PDF) by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University finds that her story of lost wealth and growing debt mirrors the struggles of many African-American families, a situation that will not change until we fix the policies that have created it.The study followed the same group of families for 23 years, from 1984 to 2007, and discovered that the gap in wealth between white families and African-American families more than quadrupled during that period, from $20,000 to $95,000. Looking at financial assets excluding home equity, the study found that the median value of wealth held by white families increased from $22,000 to $100,000 during the period, while black families saw very little increase and had a median wealth of $5,000 in 2007.
