Each of my sources was found when I found an article stating the different reasons (policy reasons) why there is a significant wealth gap between white and black Americans. They stated key words such as, “The New Deal”, “GI Bill”, “Slavery”, “Discrimination”, etc. Using these keywords, I connected them to something along the lines of, “how it influenced the racial wealth gap”. I first searched on JSTOR, Gale Academics, and Google Scholar. If I couldn’t find a source, I would search it up under the popular media source category. The sources are going to come together to support my idea of how there are policies that the US government passed that hindered black American’s growth in wealth. Starting from the beginning of American history, my sources explain the impact of slavery and discrimination and how it hindered black American’s growth. There is also the GI Bill and how it was not beneficial to black Americans and they weren’t able to pursue a good or higher education, which is another factor that prevents them to go higher in their socioeconomic status. Another source explains how the New Deal was discriminating and it helped white Americans more than black Americans during the Great Depression. There was also redlining which was when the banks would avoid investments and it impacted the dominant black American neighborhoods. There are also sources about current policies where there is racial unequal taxation. My source about the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) would be my counterargument. It explains how there are current policies that are implemented to prevent the racial wealth gap. Medical care is not available to the lower socioeconomic group (which is mainly black Americans) because medical care is expensive. If the people in this socioeconomic class were to receive medical treatment, they would be in enormous debt, thus, preventing them from doing well economically. All my sources are going to be in chronological order and the historical and current policies are going to connect together to support the idea of why there is a wealth gap between the 2 races.

The sources that I have compiled so far are credible, the scholarly sources are from Gale Academics and JSTOR, they are also peer-reviewed. As for my popular media sources, they all have secondary sources to back up their article. Furthermore, one of them discusses how the New Deal and how it impacted African Americans in a historical way, Therefore, I believe they are credible.

When I was typing my research proposal, I wanted to have all my sources ready, therefore, I’ve completed my research for my sources. While researching, the sources that I have discarded any sources that don’t go in-depth with the historical and current policies that influence the racial wealth gap, because it wouldn’t be beneficial for my essay that needs to go more in-depth with the reason why and how these policies cause the wealth gap.  There is still, however, one source that I am still debating about, whether or not I should utilize it. The article, “Examining the Black-white wealth gap” by Kriston Mcintosh, Emily Moss, Ryan Nunn, and Jay Shambaugh (URL: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/02/27/examining-the-black-white-wealth-gap/), although it briefly discusses the reason why there is a racial wealth gap by referencing the historical policies that contribute to it. They also give several statistics about the current racial wealth gap, however, they do not discuss in-depth about the policies. I was debating if I should use this source as an introduction to my research essay as a way to give background by giving statistics.

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Bibliography:

Popular media Sources: 

Schermerhorn, Calvin. “Why the Racial Wealth Gap Persists, More than 150 Years after Emancipation.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 19 June 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/06/19/why-racial-wealth-gap-persists-more-than-years-after-emancipation/.

“African Americans and the New Deal.” Digital History, www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2.

Blumberg, Yoni. “Obamacare Helps Save Low-Income People from Losing Their Homes, Study Shows.” CNBC, CNBC, 29 Jan. 2019, www.cnbc.com/2019/01/29/obamacare-helps-save-low-income-people-from-losing-homes-study-shows.html.

Austin, Algernon. “Obamacare Reduces Racial Disparities in Health Coverage.” Center for Global Policy Solutions, globalpolicysolutions.org/resources/obamacare-reduces-racial-disparities-in-health-coverage/.

Scholarly Sources:

Herbold, Hilary. “Never a Level Playing Field: Blacks and the GI Bill.” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, no. 6, 1994, pp. 104–108. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2962479. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.

Scheper, Jeanne. “Mortgaged minds: faculty-in-debt and redlining higher education.” Radical Teacher, no. 107, Winter 2017, p. 32+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A496085867/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=e5f883c0. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.

O’Connell, Heather A. “The impact of slavery on racial inequality in poverty in the contemporary U.S. South.” Social Forces, vol. 90, no. 3, 2012, p. 713+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A294505509/AONE u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=24b33315. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.

 Palma Joy Strand and Nicholas A. Mirkay, Racialized Tax Inequity: Wealth, Racism, And The U.S. System of Taxation, 15 Nw. J. L. & Soc. Pol’y. 265 (2020). https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/njlsp/vol15/iss3/1