The Final Call

Racism costs U.S. billions every year

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'Minority' communities continue to suffer systemic discrimination that weakens the U.S. economy. The Altarum Institute racial equity report found that closing the earnings gap now would lift gross domestic product by $1.9 trillion.

The study titled, “The Business Case for Racial Equity” looks at the legacy of racism in the United States and how addressing racial disparities would have a significant impact on the American economy.

The study looked at a number of racial disparities that have plagued Blacks and other minorities, including health, housing, employment, income and wealth.

“There is a tendency to frame the disparities and the gaps as a burden to the nation seldom do we frame it as a business case,” said Gail Christopher, vice president of program strategy for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. “We wouldn’t be having these deficit conversations, if we put our energy into making economic viability an option for people of color.”

The shifting demographics of the American population make the argument for racial equity even more compelling. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that racial and ethnic minorities will account for more than 50 percent of the United States population by 2043. Minority births in the United States exceeded White births for the first time in 2012. Minority babies today will become the workforce of tomorrow, making critical contributions to entitlement programs largely enjoyed by a graying White population.

Yet, minority communities continue to suffer systemic discrimination that weakens the U.S. economy. The Altarum Institute racial equity report found that closing the earnings gap now would lift gross domestic product by $1.9 trillion.

The report also analyzed what closing the earning gap would look like at 2030 and 2050 and found even more striking results.

Minorities make up 37 percent of the working age population now, but they are projected to grow to 46 percent by 2030, and 55 percent by 2050. Closing the earnings gap by 2030 would increase GDP by 16 percent, or more than $5 trillion a year,” stated the report. “Federal tax revenues would increase by over $1 trillion and corporate profits would increase by $450 billion.”

According to the Altarum Institute study, if the income gap between Whites and minorities were closed by 2045, minority consumers would account for 70 percent of all purchases.

Failing to address health disparities continues to eat away at the United States economy’s bottom line.

“An Urban Institute study found that the differences in preventable disease rates among African Americans, Hispanics, and Whites cost the health care system $24 billion annually,” the Altarum report stated. That price tag will double by 2050 if left unchecked.

The Affordable Care Act will have a disproportionate benefit for Blacks who currently survive with lower levels of health insurance and lack access to quality health care, suffering and dying from largely preventable and chronic diseases. According to the report, 19.5 percent of Blacks lack health insurance compared to 11 percent of Whites.

The infant mortality rate for Blacks is more than double the rate for Whites. AIDS diagnoses are 10 times higher in the Black community than among Whites. Black women are 40 percent more likely to die from breast cancer than White women.

In the richest nation in the world with the highest health care costs, the life expectancy for Black men is almost 5 years shorter than the life expectancy of White men. Black women face a 3 year deficit when measured against White women.

“The cost of the health disparities, the cost of the educational and achievement gaps are going to bankrupt our country,” said Ms. Christopher.

Discrimination in housing, once supported by federal policies, now permeates the balance sheets of the nation’s largest banks and continues to drive the wealth gap between Whites and Blacks.

“The black/white wealth gap increased from $85,000 in 1984 to $236,500 in 2009, driven primarily by the racial difference in the number of years of homeownership,” stated the report.