From United for a Fair Economy's State of the Dream 2005 (pdf)

Key Findings

President Bush’s Ownership Society goals may appear at first to be consistent with Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream of economic opportunity for all races, but during the first Bush administration, the United States actually moved farther away from Dr. King’s vision.

1. The employment and income picture has gotten worse for people of color since 2000, eroding the progress made during the 1990s.
• In 2000 the African American unemployment rate reached a historic low of 7.1%. It has been 9.9% or higher since January 2002.
• Latino / Hispanic unemployment rates also dropped from 8.0% in 1988 to 5.7% in 2000, but rose again in the last four years.
• About half of the progress in the median income of people of color from 1996 to 2000 was wiped out in the following three years.
• After slowly increasing from 55% of white income in 1988 to 65% in 2000, Black median income fell again to 62% in 2003. For the first time in 15 years, the average Latino household now has an income that is less than two-thirds that of the average white household.
• Throughout the 1990s, poverty rates fell across the board, declining fastest for African Americans and Latinos. But since 2000, more than one third of that progress in reducing poverty among African-American families has been erased, as 300,000 African-American families fell below the poverty line from 2000 to 2003.

2. Private retirement income and inheritances remain scarce among people of color.
• African Americans have less in private pensions and retirement accounts, and so depend more heavily on Social Security. They would be more affected than whites by any privatization plan that made benefits uncertain.
• Previous generations of race-based discrimination leaves a legacy for people of color, who are far less likely to get inheritances than white Americans.

3. Ownership of homes, stock and businesses remains disproportionately in white hands.
• While homeownership is up for all races, most people of color still rent, while three-quarters of white families own their homes. The Bush administration’s plans to boost homeownership don’t adequately address obstacles facing potential homebuyers of color, including discrimination and affordability
• Business owners of color, who are largely small business owners, received only minor tax breaks from the four Bush tax cuts. Most tax breaks for business and investors have landed with those who are wealthy and white.

Closing the racial wealth divide will require a new “GI Bill for Everyone,” a comprehensive federal investment in low-income families and communities, with an emphasis on people of color. Progressive taxes on wealthy individuals and profitable corporations are needed to fund a real Ownership Society.