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Title: Chicago's Racial Wealth Gap: Legacies of the Past, Challenges in the Present, Uncertain Future

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2021

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Abstract: The Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy has as a core part of our mission to increase society’s understanding of the root causes of racial and ethnic inequality. To this end, over the last four years we have published a series of reports on The State of Racial Justice in Chicago. In our reports, we document the experiences and conditions of life in the city for different groups and ask of ourselves and others, Chicago for whom? Across the reports, we make clear that racial and ethnic inequities in Chicago remain pervasive, persistent, and consequential: they affect the lives of Chicagoans in every neighborhood; they have not just spatial roots but also deep historical ones and are embedded in our social institutions; and they have powerful effects on the lived experiences and opportunities of all Chicagoans. Because there was such a vast trove of existing data on Chicago, in our first reports we drew exclusively on this available data and focused our efforts on bringing all the information together in a way that was accessible. As we did so, however, we also started an internal list of topics where we felt like we needed to know more. At the top of that list were questions about local patterns in racial gaps in wealth and how those gaps shape the lives of Chicagoans. To answer these questions we initiated a project to talk to middle class families in the Chicagoland area about their experiences and life trajectories. This report captures their stories. We are deeply grateful to everyone who spent time with us during this process and were willing to share their family’s joys and struggles. As we write about in what follows, there is much work to be done to support families who are contending today not just with the legacies of past inequities but with the ongoing failures of public policy to address basic needs. A Chicago that works for all is possible only if we intentionally create policies and practices that address racial inequities at all levels of our society.

Url: https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/3qyts/

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Authors: Basaldua Jr., Fructoso M.; Cuddy, Maximilian; Lewis, Amanda E.; Arenas, Iván

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Poverty and Welfare, Race and Ethnicity

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