By Sikivu Hutchinson
@sikivuhutch
@sikivuhutch
When President
Obama and other corporate Democrats approved the recent spending bill they
thumbed their collective noses at working class communities of color. Brought to us by Citigroup, JP Morgan and other
robber baron banks who plunged thousands of homeowners of color into crippling debt,
the new budget will phase out Dodd-Frank
regulations that prevented banks from trading in “the risky derivatives that sparked
the financial meltdown of 2008”. It will
also increase the amount wealthy donors can contribute to political parties and
cut
some multi-employer pensions. The financial meltdown disproportionately affected
African American and Latino homeowners who were targeted by Bank of America,
Wells Fargo, Countrywide and other big lenders for subprime and predatory home
loans. Although Obama is perfectly
willing to engage in the optics of fake racial reconciliation on Ferguson and
the Eric Garner case, his endorsement of the new bill further underscores his cynical
disregard for the socioeconomic wellbeing of communities of color.
In black
and Latino neighborhoods across the country the legacy of the mortgage debacle
is vividly exemplified by months-old For Sale signs, “bank-owned property”
notices on lawns and abandoned homes. CNN Money reports that
“Between 2004 and 2010 blacks and Latinos lost nearly a quarter of their wealth,
whereas whites lost nearly 1%”. While
the mortgage debacle gutted black and Latino wealth, the wages of whiteness
have protected white working and middle class Americans from wholesale economic
blight. According to a recent
Pew Report, “The
Great Recession hit all Americans hard, but only whites have seen their wealth
rise during the recent recovery…widening the already massive wealth gap
between whites and other racial and ethnic groups to near record levels.” Despite this fact, some whites still want to
claim the ultimate victim
status in the blue collar disenfranchisement sweepstakes. In their minds,
poor whites are losing ground due to waves of job-stealing immigrants, reverse
discrimination and affirmative action. According to this narrative, anti-white
racism is the last acceptable preserve of bigotry and cops like Darren Wilson
are themselves victims of a backlash against white males.
Clearly poor and white working class families were belted by the Recession. However, the persistence of racialized wealth inequality eludes even the most progressive
white “anti-Wall Street” policymakers. Although left-wing darlings Congressman
Bernie Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren (who led the charge against the
rollback of Dodd-Frank regulation) have been some of the most vocal opponents
of the oligarchy class they’ve had relatively little to say about the role white
supremacy and institutional racism play
in wealth inequality. In a recent NPR interview
about the midterms and his presidential aspirations Sanders was asked about
racial disparities in job access and income.
He dismissed the question, implying that it was short-sighted if not petty. Musing on why Democrats continue to lose
white voters he maintained, “I am
focusing on the fact that whether you're white or black or Hispanic or Asian,
if you are in the working class, you are struggling to keep your heads above
water.” Sanders argued that Democrats fail
to appeal to the economic interests of white working class voters but seemed willfully
ignorant that the GOP’s appeal has always been based on white supremacy. Simply put, some whites remain wedded to the GOP
due to racism and race partisanship—as long as the Democrats represent big
government spending and “handouts” to lazy blacks and undocumented Latinos “hostile”
to American values, white working class people will continue to be beholden to the
Republican Party for decades.
Sanders’ colorblind paternalism is all too common among white
liberals and progressives. When they
trot out the mythic “working class” they frequently invoke images of heartland
workers whose formerly unionized jobs have been decimated by globalization, destructive
free trade and right-to-work policies. Yet
whites of all classes have been bolstered by the rebound in the stock market as
well as rising rates of homeownership and increases in home equity. While only 47.4% of people of color were homeowners in the last year,
73.9% of whites owned homes. The bulk of
black and Latino middle class wealth is concentrated in homes that are worth
far less than those of working class whites.
Because homeowners of color are more likely to own houses in
socioeconomically depressed segregated communities that have not rebounded from the
recession their home equity is often minimal to nonexistent.
For black women the nexus of income inequality and the wealth
gap is even graver. Although black women’s
median wealth levels are among the lowest
in the nation they have the highest
workforce representation among all groups of American women. Black women over sixty-five have the least
wealth of any group in the U.S. and are less likely to have employer-funded
pensions. Because black women are more
likely to work for poverty level wages right-to-work laws are especially
devastating for black families.
Sanders and other liberal-progressive policymakers have long proposed
creating a federal jobs program to redress income inequality. But a federal
jobs program will not remedy decades-long segregation in the U.S. housing
market nor bridge the gargantuan race/gender wealth gap. It will not improve a K-12 school system which
disproportionately criminalizes youth of color while shutting them out of
college. Neoliberalism and capitalism
thrive on and exploit disparities in race, gender, sexual orientation and
geography; a fact that has always worked to white America’s advantage.
