Establishing Equality in Wealth Building (generation, controversial, racism, Obama)

[Blink101]

The other day my friend was teasing me because I didn't know many racial slurs. I became embarrassed that I was so naive about slurs and such insults since it leaves me vulnerable to ignorantly saying something which could be considered racist. When he asked me why I was so naive about slurs, I told him that most of my friends are from the upper-middle class so they don't "need" to use racial slurs since all the racism has been institutionalized for them. That was when the conversation got serious. (He was startled that a white girl like me recognized racism as an institutionalized power structure rather than an individual question of morality.) We talked about how such structures generate racism even in people who would never consider themselves "as racist" and how I believe those structures first need to be fixed before Americans can mend the racial divide.

When he asked me how one might accomplish that, I suggested doing better about promoting wealth building in minority communities to close the socioeconomic racial gap. Naturally, the next question was how that could be accomplished. Both of us pondered over this for some time before I noted that the key to wealth building is in owning property and accruing interest on it then later passing that property on to others or selling it. Since minority residents are disproportionately represented in "ghettos" or the projects, they are unable to accrue wealth at the same rate as whites or (statistically speaking) Asian populations can. This is far from a revolutionary concept and I would be disingenuous if I tried to claim otherwise, but we began to do research on the subject and realized that the housing market is very biased against many minorities (particularly black people). We were surprised by the discrepancies in our numbers which showed how segregation was still being enforced in many parts of the country due to unfair pricing, zoning, mortgage levying, taxes and other seemingly benign practices in the housing market. It would take too much time and effort to unveil all of our data on a forum, but I still felt like it was worth discussing with people who may have opinions to share on how to better enforce fair practices.

Since both of us are trained researchers, we thought it might be a good idea to create a sort of watch dog group which sends "undercover participants" to collect data on which companies or Realtors are engaging in discriminatory practices when it comes to housing. While I am not a big fan of how the Southern Poverty Law Center has conducted itself in some incidents, I think the overall model it puts forth is a good one to follow when it comes to informing the public about potentially biased groups. Of course, I would like any group I helped create to be more solidly based on scientific research/data and actually publish the data which lead to our conclusions. Of course, I don't know if something like this can realistically be created since it's just something we're thinking about in order to improve various communities. Does this even sound like a realistic idea? What other wealth building plans can you think of that could help inner city, rural, minority, impoverished or other at risk groups?

I feel like if we could create some sort of multi-pronged method of facilitating better wealth building opportunities and educated the public better about certain things then it could help bridge certain gaps that past efforts couldn't. Something as simple as offering to educate or assist poor people on how to file taxes or invest could also be good. Most self-help groups are geared towards the middle class, but I'd like to create various methods of helping insure poor people and at risk communities have a real fighting chance at these things. Simply offering scholarships, food stamps, subsidized housing and the like isn't enough to overcome generational poverty nor racism which has been ingrained into so many aspects of American culture for the past 400 years. I want realistic solutions to these problems with goals that can actually generate results.

[Adhom]

I have an idea for something that will work but is probably so out of the box and controversial that it will never get passed. Basically, I think we have to create a mandatory youth program for the impoverished kids of inner cities who are identified to have no chance of breaking out of the cycle of poverty. These programs should be at least two to four years long and have the disciplinary arduousness of the military without the chance of being sent to war. I think Obama mentioned something like this during his campaign but I haven't heard any more about it. I don't believe any programs to educate the poor about wealth building will do any good. It's not like this information is a secret and anyone who chooses to learn it can readily find it in books or online. The only way to break the cycle is to start with the youth since it is too late for the older generation, they are too set in their ways.

[Delahanty]

A mandatory program for kids identified (using what criteria) as "impoverished?" A mandatory program for anyone? I know Obama's the regulatory king, but....

How about educating kids period. How about their families not promoting or encouraging the idea that learning is to be avoided or somehow "not cool?"

The last thing this country needs is another social program.