The Hidden Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality
The Hidden Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality
复制标题
作为非裔美国人的隐性成本：财富如何延续不平等
DOI：
10.1128/9781555816704.ch20
复制
发表时间：
2004
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
T. Shapiro
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
T. Shapiro
近30年来，美国的种族偏见明显减少，许多非洲裔美国家庭的就业和年收入稳步上升。但是，除了这些令人鼓舞的迹象，托马斯·夏皮罗在《非裔美国人的隐藏成本》一书中指出，种族不平等的基本水平仍然存在，特别是在资产积累领域——继承、储蓄账户、股票、债券、房屋净值和其他投资。夏皮罗揭示了这些家庭资产的缺乏以及在房屋所有权等关键领域持续存在的种族歧视如何极大地影响了许多黑人家庭的日常生活，逆转了在学校和工作中获得的收益，并使太多的人陷入贫困的恶性循环。夏皮罗对来自洛杉矶、波士顿和圣路易斯的近200个家庭进行了深度访谈，并对1万个家庭进行了全国性调查，以展示种族不平等是如何代代相传的。我们看到，那些拥有私人财富的家庭能够一代又一代地向上爬，搬迁到拥有更好学校、更安全的社区，并将随之而来的优势传给他们的孩子。与此同时，那些没有大量财富的人仍然被困在不允许他们向上发展的社区里，无论他们多么努力工作。夏皮罗要求白人中产阶级家庭思考，财富带来的特权如何不仅提高了他们自己的机会，也阻碍了那些没有这些特权的人。这种“财富票价”是不平等的遗留问题，如果不加以改变，将导致未来社会的不公正。《作为非洲裔美国人的隐性成本》一书显示，在新世纪之初，超过一半的黑人家庭生活在资产贫困线以下。这本书将促使所有美国人重新考虑必须做些什么来结束种族不平等。
Over the past three decades, racial prejudice in America has declined significantly and many African American families have seen a steady rise in employment and annual income. But alongside these encouraging signs, Thomas Shapiro argues in The Hidden Cost of Being African American, fundamental levels of racial inequality persist, particularly in the area of asset accumulation--inheritance, savings accounts, stocks, bonds, home equity, and other investments-. Shapiro reveals how the lack of these family assets along with continuing racial discrimination in crucial areas like homeownership dramatically impact the everyday lives of many black families, reversing gains earned in schools and on jobs, and perpetuating the cycle of poverty in which far too many find themselves trapped. Shapiro uses a combination of in-depth interviews with almost 200 families from Los Angeles, Boston, and St. Louis, and national survey data with 10,000 families to show how racial inequality is transmitted across generations. We see how those families with private wealth are able to move up from generation to generation, relocating to safer communities with better schools and passing along the accompanying advantages to their children. At the same time those without significant wealth remain trapped in communities that don't allow them to move up, no matter how hard they work. Shapiro challenges white middle class families to consider how the privileges that wealth brings not only improve their own chances but also hold back people who don't have them. This "wealthfare" is a legacy of inequality that, if unchanged, will project social injustice far into the future. Showing that over half of black families fall below the asset poverty line at the beginning of the new century, The Hidden Cost of Being African American will challenge all Americans to reconsider what must be done to end racial inequality.