“Net Worth of White Households in DC Region is 81 Times That of Black Households”: Washington Post

basically runs a press release from the Urban Institute, but since I wanted to read that press release I won’t complain:

The Urban Institute report, “The Color of Wealth in the Nation’s Capital,” said the Great Recession and housing crisis of 2007 to 2009 exacerbated long-persistent disparities, with black and Hispanic households losing about half of their wealth. In 2013 and 2014, white households in the D.C. area had a net worth of $284,000 while black households had a net worth of $3,500, the report said. Hispanics had a net worth of $13,000. Net worth is the value of assets minus debt. …

“Black people in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area are located at the bottom of the racial wealth hierarchy,” the report says. “There is a tendency to attribute the racial wealth gap to individual character flaws among people without wealth. This report provides an extensive history of the structural barriers in local and national policies, Supreme Court rulings, programs, and practices that created wealth for many White families and prevented wealth accumulation or stripped wealth from many Black families.”

more (ooh, and it looks like the Post may even have gotten this story from City Paper, journalism definitely seems like a healthy and stable industry and I hope my parents are so proud of me)