Racism's compound interest

The legacy of slavery and segregation in this country has benefitted many for years on a principle similar to compound interest, writes Ezra Klein for Vox. White America has, for centuries, used force, racist laws, biased courts, and housing segregation to build wealth, stealing the work of African Americans and then, when that became illegal, plundering their work and assets. And then it let compound interest work its magic. Today, white America is one of the richest and most powerful populations the world has ever known. Klein speaks of compound interest literally, accrued via stolen income, but also figuratively, in terms of education, families, neighborhoods, and self-respect. Consider the break-up of African-American families through slavery. "If you believe in the power of strong families to help their members do better in life -- and almost all the research says you should, and almost every American politician says he does," Klein writes, then think about the negative value of a shattered family, compounding through generations. The same goes for houses stolen, educations wanted but not obtained, and loss of a basic belief in U.S. law and institutions that whites take for granted. So, "the people who benefitted most from American racism weren't the white men who stole the penny. It's the people who held onto the penny while it doubled and doubled and doubled and doubled," Klein feels. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

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