RESEARCH QUESTION: How do the laws and policies of the United States government contribute to the wealth gap between black and white Americans?

My initial research question combined the two topics of racism and poverty, which resulted in the topic question, “How does racial inequality and poverty correlate with one another?”. However, because this is too broad, I needed to decide whether or not I should analyze the economic, social, or political aspects of this question. Taking into consideration the number of sources that are available to me, I’ve decided to focus on the political aspect of this question. Therefore, my final research question is: “How do the laws and policies of the United States government contribute to the wealth gap between black and white Americans?”. I will be analyzing both historical and present policies that may influence the current racial wealth gap. There are many ways to examine wealth inequality, and by examining education and housing opportunities, and incomes, it is one of the many ways of approaching this topic question. The historical policies that will be in my research essay are the GI Bill and how it was not beneficial to African Americans because they had to accommodate to the Jim Crow Laws. Another is the New Deal, how it is discriminate against black Americans, the practice of Redlining. The current policies I will be examining is how the tax system is an indirect form of racism and how it promotes the racial wealth gap. One of my counter-arguments is going to be about how there are government programs such as Obamacare, which helps racial disparities in health coverage. Medical fees are expensive, and those in poverty and with low income (mainly Black Americans) are unable to afford it. Medical fees/debt prevent them from doing well and going up in socioeconomic status.

What interests me about this question is, I’ve always wanted to know more about the reason why there is a racial wealth gap and the root behind this social issue. This is relevant to social justice or social action because people of color’s opportunity are limited due to their identity. Since the beginning of America’s history, black people were enslaved, and when they were emancipated, they were still discriminated against because of their color. These prevented Black Americans to do financially well and to have the opportunity to seek education or a good career that will allow them to be well off. Furthermore, the American government also passed laws and policies such as the Jim Crow law, that limit their ability to grow and prosper in America. The struggle to be economically and socially equal is still a problem today. This topic doesn’t just discuss the wealth gap—as it is prevalent in almost every country, but this is about how racism and discrimination are related to the wealth gap in the United States.

To write this essay, my model essay will be The Washington Post article, “Why the racial wealth gap persists more than 150 years after emancipation” by Calvin Schermerhorn. Since I will be examining the political factors that contribute to the racial wealth gap between black and white Americans, the audience is to the American public who are specifically interested in the political and historical side of the racial wealth gap, that way those who are interested can educate themselves on what are the causes of the wealth gap and they can fight to make a change. As for my timeline, I hope that I would have completed my research for secondary sources right when I have completed this research proposal paper.

Model Essay URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/06/19/why-racial-wealth-gap-persists-more-than-years-after-emancipation/).

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

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