Bleeding in the street or incarcerated in our prison systems

February 28

GUEST: Sabrina Terry, author and researcher at the Institute for Policy Studies, Senior Strategist with the Economic Policy Project at UnidosUS, and former Manager at the NAACP Economic Department, talks about a new report she coauthored, Dreams Deferred: How Enriching the 1% Widens the Racial Wealth Divide.

 The Racial Divide

My talk with Sabrina Terry was enlightening. I had not realized how great the wealth gap in the U.S. was when it comes to the color of one's skin.

Approaching zero not worth is more than uncomfortable; it is deadly. Black family members die more often than white family members do, from newborns to senior citizens. Every measure of mortality shows us that not being able to afford healthcare is a death sentence for at least some Black family members.

Access to education is another advantage denied Black families. Decent housing is another, as is access to a fair criminal justice system. In fact, the system punishes African Americans in every conceivable way. And because the very rich (and very white) elites have taken so much from the rest of society, Black people, at the bottom already, have lost so much more than poor whites. So is this slavery in another guise? Are the nation's police forces little more than slave catching militias that roamed the countryside in the antebellum south? The results on Blacks seem to be about the same; they lie bleeding in the street or incarcerated in our prison systems.