2022 Black Well-being Final w links for Web 11.29.22 - Flipbook - Page 34
BLACK WELL-BEING REPORT 2022
Contextual Factors Related
to Economic Mobility
What we believe to be true
Narratives about money and our personal value are as old as slavery
and colonization, propping up systems of injustice and inherently
devaluing the very people and land that feed, heal, house, care for,
and protect us. In the absence of reparations and the presence of
narratives swirling about working harder, hustle culture has become
a survival strategy. People are not poor because they are lazy. In
2019, more than 23% of families in Washington weren’t paid enough
to make more than 200% of the federal poverty level, which is
an outdated measure of basic needs.72 Many of us are exhausted,
underpaid, and overburdened because our society was
not set up for us to succeed.
Reparations and closing the structural gap
Recent research shows that even if the conditions for building
wealth, like equal pay, access to capital, healthy housing, and
education, were the same for Black people and white people from
1870 to 2020, white households would still have three times as
much wealth as Black households. It would take 200 more years,
until 2220, to achieve equal wealth under those same conditions.73
We haven’t even started the clock. Reparations are an essential
How much things cost
component to closing the gap.
We know that building wealth is not only about increasing our
income. Structural racism, as an unspoken foundational design
aspect of our social structures, results in us paying a larger share
of our income for most things.74
The cost of housing is higher
You would need an annual household income of $60,966 to afford a
two-bedroom rental home using Housing and Urban Development’s
(HUD) Fair Market Rent in Washington, which is roughly $4,000
higher than the Black median household income of $56,250.75
Furthermore, under the 2020 state minimum wage of $13.69, you
would need to work 86 hours per week at minimum wage or 2.1 full
time jobs to afford a two-bedroom rental home. Washington state
recently increased the minimum wage to $14.49.
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