In Module 6 of the class we will deal with trends in local and global inequality. A recent research paper authored by scholars at both Brookings and the AEI highlights the racial gap in income mobility across generations in the United States. This Bloomberg article summarizes the results: the probability that a White person is in the bottom fifth of the income distribution and that their grandparents were as well is only 1%. For a Black person, it is 15%. In other words, poverty is much more persistent among African Americans than among Whites. I was particularly struck by this graph:
There is a lot of work to be done to address the current legacy of past injustice.
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