Final Project

The Great Recession took a toll on African American families when the interest rates and mortgage leverages stooped high, leaving them in a sluggish recovery which made matters worse. With the belief that education can close the gap in wealth, they went on to further their education for better wages hoping it would be enough. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the head of the household of a black family that works full-time, has less wealth than the head of a white household that is unemployed (2017, p.4). The “Median Wealth, by Degree and Race” chart shows that blacks that have a college degree have an eighth of wealth compared to whites. Looking at the graduate level, blacks have a third of the wealth compared to whites. As much as wealth increases, having an education does not ensure wealth increases for black families.

Therefore, the large wealth gap between whites and blacks is as a result of home-ownership. According to Pew Research Center, home-ownership of whites in 1976 was sixty-nine percent compared to the forty-three percent of blacks (2016, p.1). That is a difference of twenty-six percent. This is around the time when segregation dominated in a lot of states and not much land was given to the black to own property. Comparing the data from 1976 to 2015, the percentage of home-ownership of blacks from the graph, “Home-ownership More Common among Whites than Other Racial and Ethnic Groups,” has not changed while the whites’ percentage increased to seventy-two percent. If blacks focused on owning a home as a way of gaining wealth and passing it on for their generations, then home-ownership percentage would gradually increase.

The racial gap in home-ownership was caused by multiple events in history but most especially, the New Deal housing program instructed by the Federal Housing Authority according to the documentary video of, “Race-The Power of an Illusion.” This took place after the Great Depression and, the FHA was figuring out methods of improving the economy. They passed a bill that promised veterans a guarantee of being able to own a home and many others but only if they were white. Levittown was a result of the new program. The housing developers turned large potato fields into new communities for whites which were constructed far away from black communities. The FHA drew lines on maps where green areas were occupied by whites and red lines were occupied by blacks. They felt that integrating their new communities would cause bad economic risks. The whites living in the Levittown had opportunities of gaining wealth to this date while blacks are still struggling or may be stuck in similar conditions from the past.

I decided to make a bank for black people which is an idea inspired by the work of William Pope L. on the "Black Factory." It is a video project giving a brief background into the history of home-ownership after the Great Recession. It will also show "red-lined" cities from all over the country. The bank is supposed to bring awareness to black people on home-ownership and help them be able to acquire opportunities to allow them to own a home in return, they could bring a picture from their family history of a home they lived in the past. The video will be posted on my Facebook account since I have the most followers on that platform.

https://prezi.com/view/TbGc9VVlqVXEoWMUcnbt/

Resources

California Newsreel. (2003). Race: the house we live in. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW764dXEI_8\

The Pew Research Center. (2016). Homeownership more common among whites than other racial and ethnic groups. Retrieved October 2, 2019, from