Inequality: The Ugly Truth Final

    Although many Americans do not want to admit it, the ugly truth prevails in that there is a direct negative correlation between race and language on household incomes. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that suggests that people of color tend to make half of the amount of income than people without. Income is very integrated in the quality of life and health of Americans. However, recent studies suggest that there is a social hierarchy at play that makes it harder for certain individuals to acquire a higher income. This could be due to language, gender, and very frequently race. These studies show present day facts that people may or may not be aware of, but nonetheless prove that there is still active and unfortunate inequality between the incomes of certain races.

    The article, “Wealth Inequality and the Racial Wealth Gap.” by Aladangady, Aditya, and Akila Forde, published by, The Fed – Wealth Inequality and the Racial Wealth Gap, contains very potent evidence having to do with racial wealth gaps that proves that some races make on average less than others. The purpose of this article is to answer the question of how does racial orientation contribute to wealth inequality and how has this figure evolved over time. If it was racial equality they would be no primary race in the top 10 or bottom 10% of incomes. However according to the article, “Black and Hispanic households hold only 2.9 and 2.8 percent of wealth, respectively, while accounting for 15.6 percent and 10.9 percent of the US population… wealth is disproportionately skewed towards White households.” This quote shows that because they are more whites in the higher percentages of income there is clear, racial inequality. If blacks and Latinos were to be examined under racial equality, black families would have five times more income than they currently do and Latino families would have almost 4 times the income they have now. This alarming statistic proves that there is no racial equality due to the drastic increase in the income of Black and Latino homes under a racial equilibrium. The excerpt from Britannica encyclopedia “income inequality” by Howard, Michael W. Gives readers many important facts About the reality of inequality in wealth. To quote the article, “and varies by social factors such as sex, age, and race or ethnicity. This quote shows a clear connection with “Wealth Inequality and the Racial Wealth Gap.” and that it acknowledges the important factor that race and ethnic city has on social status and income. Such a statement proves that there is an inequality when it comes to wealth distribution. However where these two differ is that in “income inequality”, There is fixation on cause of wealth inequality which is one’s occupation and salary which often Does not always depend on one’s ambitions but on structural and cultural impacts. To quote the article, “There are also significant structural and cultural causes, such as segmented labour markets, discrimination, institutionalized racism and sexism, gender roles, and family responsibilities.” Here the article is thoroughly describing some of the many cultural factors that can affect the type of occupations people have in America. Comparing this to the first statistic we discussed, there is no surprise as to why Blacks and Latinos make half of the amount as whites. These two sources are saying the same thing About what is still prevalent in the United States today. Not only is there discrimination for race and ethnicity but for gender roles as well. According to Britannica “income inequality”, women also have jobs that pay less than men and still are not compensated.

    The next article “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan is a literacy narrative and was published by The Threepenny Review in 1990. “Mother Tongue” is the story of Amy Tan’s background of learning English as well as Amy’s relationship with her mother. One significant part of the story was when Amy Tan’s mother told Amy to call her stockbroker to request payment because he was late. However, she did this because the mom was not good at speaking English, and she often spoke it broken. When she finally did get to speak to the stockbroker, she was not taken seriously. The fact that Amy’s mom had to make her daughter speak for her is a prime example of prejudice against foreign individuals. Clearly, a stockbroker would have not respected Amy’s mother and her original language. Therefore, she felt the need to hide herself in order to make more income. This happened again when she went to go take a CAT scan. To quote “Mother Tongue”, “Still, she said, the hospital did not apologize when they said they had lost the CAT scan and she had come for nothing.” Here Amy Tan’s mother yelled at the doctors for losing her CAT scan but they didn’t seem to care which seems very discriminatory due to her broken English. Given this event, an important connection can be made to “income inequality”. Encyclopedia Britannica. To quote “income inequality”, “Black and Hispanic families and female-headed households are more likely to be poor or near-poor than other households.” This is a statistic only further proves that peoples of other races and languages are at a disadvantage when it comes to earning income and that is definitely an inequality amongst races as is definitely the case in “Mother Tongue”.

    The article, “Racial Disparities in Income and Poverty Remain Largely Unchanged amid Strong Income Growth in 2019.” Economic Policy Institute, focuses on simply stating facts of the income growth between four races. Their intended audience would most likely be people who want to know whether there is racial inequality in household income growth. “Racial Disparities…”, offers even more detailed statistics on specific races from 2000 to 2019. Looking further into this article it is clear that there is a large racial dividend in all four lines “Asian households (from $88,774 to $98,174), Black households (from $42,447 to $46,073), Hispanic households (from $52,382 to $56,113), white households (from $71,922 to $76,057),” As you can see these statistics are not surprising. Blacks and Latinos continue to have the lowest amount of income growth whereas Whites and Asians have the most. These clear and obvious facts paint a clear picture of our unfortunate reality in America. Comparing this information with “Wealth Inequality and the Racial Wealth Gap.” The Fed, these two articles agree with each other in that they both acknowledge that Hispanics and blacks are the two most poor races in America. To quote a line from “Wealth Inequality…” The Fed, “In this note, we adopt a specific racial equality counterfactual which assumes households of all races are equally represented at all points in the wealth distribution in proportion to their population shares.” Here the definition of racial equality is said to be where all races have wealth according to their population rate however, if I find another  quote from article, “Black and Hispanic households hold only 2.9 and 2.8 percent of wealth, respectively, while accounting for 15.6 percent and 10.9 percent of the US population.” This quote confirms that there is a direct violation of racial equality in our income rates and that this is the ugly truth that must be accepted. The article in a way answered it own question Because it first gave the definition of racial equality and then proved not to be the case for blacks and Latinos.

    In conclusion, through the articles “Wealth Inequality and the Racial Wealth Gap.”, “income inequality”, “Mother Tongue”, “Racial Disparities in Income and Poverty Remain Largely Unchanged amid Strong Income Growth in 2019” provide sufficient evidence to prove that there is a large amount of racial inequality that affects the incomes of thousands of Americans. Not only is the inequality racial but it is also divided based on gender and language as well. Unfortunately we as a society need to face the ugly truth in order for us to fix our mistakes and correct these unsurprising statistics.

Cited Page:

Aladangady, Aditya, and Akila Forde. “Wealth Inequality and the Racial Wealth Gap.” The Fed – Wealth Inequality and the Racial Wealth Gap, https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/wealth-inequality-and-the-racial-wealth-gap-20211022.html#.

Howard, Michael W. and Carter, Valerie J.. “income inequality”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Aug. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/income-inequality. Accessed 7 December 2022.

Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue.” Dreams and Inward Journeys: A Rhetoric and Reader for Writers, edited by Marjorie Ford and Jon Ford, 7th ed., Pearson, 2010, pp.

“Racial Disparities in Income and Poverty Remain Largely Unchanged amid Strong Income Growth in 2019.” Economic Policy Institute, https://www.epi.org/blog/racial-disparities-in-income-and-poverty-remain-largely-unchanged-amid-strong-income-growth-in-2019/.