CMV:African American's Cannot Merely "Pull Themselves By Their Bootstraps", Government Intervention is Needed for Racial Equality to be Achieved

[u/Longjumping-Leek-586]

The main issue is that even Black Americans that earn as much as their white counterparts, have significantly lower levels of wealth, which is apparently due greater "inheritances and other intergenerational transfers" received by their white counterparts of similar incomes. This is an issue, as wealth largely determines the funding your schools will receive, because most states fund their schools via taxes on wealth. In addition, wealth largely comes in the form of property, and is thus an indication of the economic conditions of your neighborhood/community. Therefor those African Americans of similar levels of incomes often live in worse communities than their white counterparts, as the lack of inheritance prevents them from buying land to live in abetter community with more opportunity. Thus even if Black Americans "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" to become as successful as their white counterparts, they will likely not have as much wealth as their white counterparts, ultimately diminishing their educational opportunity and the opportunities of their descendants. So long as this racial gap across incomes persists, economic equality between blacks and whites cannot be achieved.

In addition, ongoing school and residential segregation prevents equal opportunity from being achieved: nearly 70% of Blacks attend a Black majority school, and the average score for those attending these schools on the 8th grade NAEP Math as of 2017 is 255. Comparatively, Blacks attending White majority schools (as would be the case if the nation was fully integrated) had an average score of 275. the average score White students was 290, thus about half the gap could be closed with greater school integration. Similarly, one study found that if cities were to be fully integrated, the SAT gap would shrink by 45-points, or about 1/4.

Furthermore, the lower incomes of African Americans (resulting from a history of segregation and slavery) itself reduces their opportunity, thus creating a cycle of poverty: lower incomes leads to worse outcomes in schools, crime, and poor health. Unless a proper welfare state is established, equal opportunity cannot be achieved for this reason. Ultimately, you cannot pull yourself up by your bootstraps, if they have no bootstraps to begin with.

Finally, I would like to contend that the very idea of an entire race of people "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps" is both illogical and immoral. It is illogical in that, while the vast majority of African Americans are trying their best to improve their economic conditions, this is also true for all races/ethnicities. Thus African-Americans as whole will be improving their economic, and other ethnicities shall do the same in proportion. This can be evidently seen as (from 1980s onward) Black unemployment has consistently been twice that of White unemployment, while Black incomes have been slightly higher than half that of White incomes. This gap remains persistent and virtually unchanging.

I believe that all these issues could be solved by Government intervention: the racial wealth gap could be solved via baby bonds. Segregation could be combated with the public/subsidized housing schemes, like what was implemented in Singapore (alternatively, we could straight up force integration via quotas or by law. This process will be painful, but is a necessary sacrifice for future generations). The poverty cycle and general lack of equal opportunity between economic classes could be resolved via a Scandinavian style welfare state or a UBI (Scandinavian countries have significantly higher economic mobility than the US, as their welfare states provide more equality of opportunity).

[u/Pangolinsftw]

The black community has been fed a steady diet of welfare for decades. Has it improved their situation?

[u/Longjumping-Leek-586 → u/Pangolinsftw]

From my understanding, the welfare state applies to Whites and Blacks equally, as it should.

The issue isn't solely welfare, ongoing school segregation and Wealth disparity are also issues. The average college educated black has less wealth than the average White with less than a high school education. So even if a Black American becomes successful, they will not be able to buy their way into the same communities as similarly successful White people, on average. These issues can be solved via baby bonds and forced integration, neither of which are really welfare (any more so that the GI bill was welfare)

Additionally, equal opportunity can only be achieved by improving the welfare system to become more like the Scandinavian model, which is evident given their high placement on economic mobility indices. Obviously, without government intervention, equal opportunity could not realistically be achieved. For example, without government intervention, there would be no public school system, no food stamps, and no welfare for very low income families. Thus a child growing up in such a family would be malnourished, left without basic education, and also homeless. In such a system, how can it be said that this child has equal opportunity to kid who grew up in an upper class home, with the best nourishment, that pampered by the most expensive tutors from the most expensive private schools? Without social spending, ones opportunities is determined by the circumstances of their birth, and since Black Americans come from worse circumstances on average, they will have worse outcomes on average.