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9.6: Summary/Review

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  • Page ID
    143341

    • Ulysses Acevedo
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    Conclusion

    This chapter outlined many of the issues but highlighted residential segregation, assets including homeownership, education, and labor as the major areas of wealth inequity. We learned in this chapter about the challenges of fixing the racial and ethnic wealth inequities in the US. In fact, our intersectional identities are more connected to our access or denial to wealth than we may realize. For example, white families have higher wealth because they are more likely to receive inheritances, gifts and other family support than Black and Hispanic families. Furthermore, this chapter utilized testimonies as a decolonial methodology when learning about the collective struggles of wealth inequalities and the movements to break down those barriers.

    Proposed as a solution to eradicate poverty, education has been called the “great equalizer” and viewed as a path towards wealth building for those who do not come from wealth. In fact, individuals who earn college degrees can outearn their counterparts who don’t. However, low quality education (in combination with a variety of factors) can push out students from pursuing higher education and settling for dead end jobs. The economic injustice cycle persists because our income dictates where we can afford to live, access to quality education and proximity to well paying jobs.

    Lastly, an important concept to understand from this chapter is racial capitalism, which explains how modern racialized labor is informed by the past racist ideologies and labor (i.e. unpaid African slave labor in US history). Thus, many of the racial economic inequalities in the US originated with the property and assets appropriated through colonization and the theft of native land, and through slavery. The struggles for economic justice persist in our society. For example, the continued fight for labor organizing by our teachers to Amazon workers to the nationwide, statewide, local, dialogue for reparations.

    Key Terms

    • Reparations: righting the wrongs of a past injustice through resources or monetary payment.

    Discussion Questions

    Journal Prompts

    Class Activities

    Zip-Code Activity

    This is an activity that can be used in an in person classroom setting by going to The Opportunity Atlas website and allowing students to search their own ZIP code.

    Zip-Code Activity Instructions:

    Race and Class, Song Activity

    This is an activity that can be used in an asynchronous online classroom setting. In a discussion forum ask students to submit a song that has to do with race and class.

    Part 1:

    Part 2:

    This page titled 9.6: Summary/Review is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Ulysses Acevedo (ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)) .