National NAACP Convention
Economic Opportunity in Your
Community
Roger A. Clay, Jr.
President
Insight Center for Community Economic Development
July 9, 2012
About the Insight Center
Our Mission:
To help people and communities become, and
remain, economically secure
Guiding Concepts:
Economic equity and Inclusion
Income and Assets
Principal areas of Our Work
 Income:
 Allows people to become economically secure
 Assets:
 Allows people to remain economically secure
and
Pass on the benefits to the next generation
Key to Economic Security
Building Wealth
Wealth determines where you live,
where you go to school, and what
kind of jobs you get
Racial Wealth Gap
White Americans have 22 times more wealth than blacks
—a gap that nearly doubled during the recession
Communities of color
lost 60% of their
wealth between 2005
and 2010
The Racial Wealth Gap was Widening Before the
Recession
$95,000
$20,000
Income is only part of the picture
High-Income Whites
Middle-Income Whites
High-Income Blacks
Middle-Income Blacks
Education matters, but alone cannot close the gap
• In 1994, Black mothers with a
Bachelor’s degree or higher had
64 cents for every similar white
mother’s dollar.
• By 2007, they had 13 cents.
• The wealth gap among the most
educated mothers grew fivefold
between 1994 and 2007 to
$128,000.
The Recession hit blacks hard
Significant job loss:
Nearly half of blacks who lost their jobs have
been out of work for longer than 6 months
Declining income:
From 2007 to 2009, incomes fell 7.1% for
blacks, faster than any group
From 2009 to 2011, black minimum wage
workers grew by nearly 17%, higher than any
group
Loss of homeownership:
By the end of 2011, 45.1% owned their homes,
down from 47.7% at the beginning of the
recession
The State of Communities of Color in the U.S. Economy Still Feeling the Pain Three Years Into the Recovery. Center for American Progress,2012.
Debt has become the modern day shackle
Before the recession, from 2005 to 2007, black
households with zero wealth or debt grew from
35% to 39%
For one-half of all black families with
children under age 18, debt has become a
the new norm, even for those with the
highest levels of education
Child support debt makes it impossible for
low-income, noncustodial fathers to build
wealth
The Importance of Closing the Racial Wealth Gap
 The racial wealth gap hurts the nation as a whole.
 Reducing inequality is the best way of improving the social
environment and quality of life for all Americans.
 The task of responding to a demographic shift in which the majority of
Americans will no longer be white becomes especially urgent.
 Majority of young children are already people of color
 Our nation cannot afford to squander its most precious resource in an
increasingly competitive global economy: its people.
 Without wealth, individual, family, and community capacity cannot
be unleashed.
 Economic inequality undermines an effective democracy
 Wealth inequality leads to power inequality
Opportunities
Occupy Movement
Employment Challenges
Changing Demographics
Insight Center for Community Economic Development
www.insightcced.org