Jackson, J., dissenting
B
History speaks. In some form, it can be heard forever. The race-based gaps that first developed centuries ago are echoes from the past that still exist today. By all accounts, they are still stark.
Start with wealth and income. Just four years ago, in 2019, Black families’ median wealth was approximately $24,000.[1] For White families, that number was approximately eight times as much (about $188,000).[2] These wealth disparities “exis[t] at every income and education level,” so, “[o]n average, white families with college degrees have over $300,000 more wealth than black families with college degrees.”[3] This disparity has also accelerated overtime—from a roughly $40,000 gap between White and Black household median net worth in 1993 to a roughly $135,000 gap in 2019.[4] Median income numbers from 2019 tell the same story: $76,057 for White households, $98,174 for Asian households, $56,113 for Latino households, and $45,438 for Black households.[5]
These financial gaps are unsurprising in light of the link
- ↑ Dickerson 1086 (citing data from 2019 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances); see also Rothstein 184 (reporting, in 2017, even lower median-wealth number of $11,000).
- ↑ Dickerson 1086; see also Rothstein 184 (reporting even larger relative gap in 2017 of $134,000 to $11,000).
- ↑ Baradaran 249; see also Dickerson 1089–1090; Oliver & Shapiro 94–95, 100–101, 110–111, 197.
- ↑ See Brief for National Academy of Education as Amicus Curiae 14–15 (citing U. S. Census Bureau statistics).
- ↑ Id., at 14 (citing U. S. Census Bureau statistics); Rothstein 184 (reporting similarly stark White/Black income gap numbers in 2017). Early returns suggest that the COVID–19 pandemic exacerbated these disparities. See E. Derenoncourt, C. Kim, M. Kuhn, & M. Schularick, Wealth of Two Nations: The U. S. Racial Wealth Gap, 1860–2020, p. 22 (Fed. Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Opportunity & Inclusive Growth Inst., Working Paper No. 59, June 2022) (Wealth of Two Nations); L. Bollinger & G. Stone, A Legacy of Discrimination: The Essential Constitutionality of Affirmative Action 103 (2023) (Bollinger & Stone).
