SurVeys & Reports
THE ROAD TO ZERO WEALTH
HOW THE RACIAL WEALTH DIVIDE IS HOLLOWING OUT AMERICA’S MIDDLE CLASS
In our 2016 report, The Ever-Growing Gap: Without Change, African American and Latino Families Won’t Match White Wealth for Centuries, we showed that it if current trends continue, it will take 228 years for the average Black family to reach the level of wealth White families own today. For the average Latino family, matching the wealth of White families will take 84 years. In this report, we look at the racial wealth divide at the median over the next four and eight years, as well as to 2043, when the country’s population is predicted to become majority non-white. We also look to wealth rather than income to reconsider what it means to be middle class. In finding an ever-accelerating gap, we consider what it means for the American middle class and we explore what policy interventions could reverse the trends we see today. We find that without a serious change in course, the country is heading towards a racial and economic apartheid state.
ATTACK ON OUR POWER AND DIGNITY
What Project 2025 Means for Black Communities
A Message to Readers from LDF President and Director-Counsel Janai Nelson
Dear Reader,
Rarely is a battle plan so audaciously revealed to its targets as is Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise. This 900+ page manifesto to dismantle American democracy has been made public for all to see and for the worst actors to potentially adopt. As stated on its website, “Project 2025 is not partisan” and “does not speak for any candidate or campaign, in any capacity.” It is, therefore, a universal risk that transcends party and politics.
As the first and foremost law organization that has fought for the rights, dignity, and power of Black communities since its inception nearly eighty-five years ago, LDF and its Thurgood Marshall Institute analyzed Project 2025 to determine its impact on Black communities and has concluded that it is a direct, boundless, pregnant threat to the interests and well-being of Black people and our democracy. Our report highlights some of the most alarming and destructive elements of Project 2025 for Black people in America and also offers an alternate vision for the future we are fighting for.
We invite you to read our report and assess Project 2025 on your own. Most important, we invite you to envision the dire consequences of Project 2025 on your life and the generations that will follow.
United in justice,
Janai S. Nelson
President and Director-Counsel, Legal Defense Fund
Do Californians Support Reparations for Black Americans?
May 2023 A Black Policy Project Research Paper
Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
By Michael A. Stoll, Professor of Public Policy and Director, Black Policy Project UCLA, Elliot Woods, Masters Student in Public Policy UCLA, Tyler Webb, Masters Student in Public Policy UCLA
This summer the California Reparations Task Force will release its final report after two years of public meetings, research and debate. Their report will articulate in detail the harms that Black Californians have experienced from the time of enslavement to the present and outline recommendations for repairing those harms. In view of the impending public debate the Task Force’s final report is likely to spark, our team wanted to get a better picture of where Californians stood on the issue of reparations.
For greater context, to date, polling on reparations has largely been conducted through national surveys that have showed some but weak support for reparations. Given the demographic and political make-up of California, and how the state often differs from other regions of nation in public opinion polls, our team hypothesized the same might be true in terms of reparations. Thus, this research brief analyzes recent public opinion survey data from a representative sample of Californians conducted by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) last year.
The State of Black California
Assessing 20 Years of Black Progress in the Golden State
Despite the long history in the United States to expand basic rights to Black Americans, racial inequality in American life remains a central concern. While many think the eradication of de jure segregation and discrimination as well as the enactment of civil rights protections over a half-century ago solved our country’s racial issues, today, we are seeing increasing efforts to roll back those rights. These efforts include targeted attacks on ethnic studies education, on affirmative action policies meant to increase diversity in schools, and diversity, equity, and inclusion policies at workplaces. Although California is often considered a more progressive state – indeed, its policy environment is more friendly to initiatives that push for increased rights and equity – even in the Golden State, much work remains to achieve true equality.
The State of Black California 2024 builds on the original State of Black California report published in 2007. The new study examines demographic changes and the degree to which the socioeconomic position of Black people in California changed in the 20 years between 2000 and 2020. The study demonstrates its findings using an “Equality Index” (the Index) an objective tool to compare the degree to which Black people experience equal conditions with other ethnic groups, particularly with Whites.
The Index summarizes an extensive set of outcome data in several areas, including economics, housing, health, education, criminal justice, and civic engagement. This allows one to clearly see how Black Californians fare relative to other racial and ethnic groups in the aggregate and how their relative standing changed from 2000 to 2020.
