Structural racism, cultural racism and individual-level discrimination generate racial wealth health, and opportunity disparities that systematically undermine the success of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) households. Barriers to economic mobility and opportunity negatively impact wealth building among BIPOC families. White family wealth is nearly ten 10 times greater than Black family wealth and eight times greater than Hispanic family wealth—a divide that’s wider than it was in 1963 and that is still growing. The gap in net worth between Black and white families is particularly pervasive—it persists at nearly every income level, meaning that even when Black and white households have similar income, the latter are likely to enjoy more overall wealth.
Racial health disparities caused by inequity are ubiquitous. BIPOC face higher rates of chronic disease and premature death compared to the rates among whites. Nationally, life expectancy at birth for Black people is 3.4 years shorter than that of white people, and that gap can be even more pronounced depending on where a person lives. Everything from real estate and banking to education and the tax code is predicated upon structural norms that impose barriers to opportunity among BIPOC families.
LISC is committed to advancing racial equity in local communities and eliminating the racial wealth, health and opportunity gap across all of our work streams. We are supporting BIPOC entrepreneurship by creating access to capital for BIPOC business owners; we are working to increase wages and help people build twenty-first century job skills with our investments in Financial Opportunity Centers; we are promoting housing affordability and homeownership opportunities; and we are investing in quality child care centers, primary schools and health care centers serving communities of color. These are just some of the concerted ways that LISC is hoping to address the racial equity gap.
Creating communities of opportunity for all is a multisector, shared responsibility. We believe that the federal government—which in many instances established policies that have exacerbated the wealth gap—can join us in facilitating the dismantling of inequitable systems by adopting policies and approaches that intentionally address racial wealth inequality.
LISC released a comprehensive set of policy priorities and proposals that we intend to promote with members of Congress and the Administration in the coming months and years. While in some respects all of these proposals will positively impact BIPOC households and communities, we highlight below a subset of the proposals that we believe can be particularly impactful with respect to closing the health, wealth, and opportunity gap for BIPOC families and communities.