Isaac Park discusses Senator Elizabeth Warren’s keynote speech at the 2016 Color of Wealth Summit. Senator Warren discussed the need for government to make real investments in communities of color, which were deeply affected by the housing collapse. It’s this low family wealth that prevents entrepreneurs of color from succeeding as business owners.
“The housing collapse destroyed trillions of dollars in family wealth,” the Massachusetts Democrat told the Center for Global Policy Solutions’ “Color of Wealth” summit in Washington last week. “But the crash hit African American families like a punch in the gut.” “White households lost on average 11 percent of their wealth,” she added, “but black households lost over 30 percent of their wealth.” Given these disparities, Warren argued that “the federal government [needs] to make real investments in communities of color.”
The Center has released a study, “The Color of Entrepreneurship,” that documents racial disparities in the business sector. According to the report, racism has blunted the benefits of minority-owned businesses: The U.S. economy continues to forgo about 1.1 million minority-owned businesses due to historic and current instances of discrimination. The report concluded that if those businesses were up and running, they would potentially create nine million jobs and increase the U.S. national income by $300 billion.
