[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 208 (Wednesday, December 9, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H7056-H7057]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             COMPARING WEALTH IN BLACK HOMES AND BUSINESSES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Hall) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HALL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about a couple of items 
of importance. I rise today to speak about wealth in Black homes and 
businesses.

[[Page H7057]]

  According to the Brookings Institution, the net worth of a typical 
White family is nearly 10 times that of a Black family.
  According to the Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative, the numbers in 
my home city of Atlanta and the other eight cities in the district, 
College Park, East Point, Decatur, Hapeville, Lake City, Forest Park, 
Morrow, and Brookhaven, are slightly better, but no less concerning.
  The median household income of a White family is $83,722, compared to 
$28,105 for a Black family.
  Sixty-nine percent of the Black families are liquid asset poor, 
compared to 22 percent of White families.
  The average African-American-owned business is valued at $58,085, 
while the average value of a White business is $658,264.
  There are many reasons for these disparities, starting foremost with 
America's original sin: slavery. And descendants of African slaves in 
District Five expect restorative financial justice in the form of 
reparations.
  We also know that a reason the problem persists well into the 21st 
century is the availability of capital to Black-owned businesses and 
the success of Black banks. The higher the circulation of dollars in 
the community, the greater the economic stability and opportunities for 
economic growth.
  According to the University of Georgia's Selig Center for Economic 
Growth, money circulates one time within the African-American 
community, compared to more than six times in the Latinx community, 
nine times in the Asian community, and an unlimited amount of times 
within the White community.
  A Black Star Project study on the racial wealth gap calculates that a 
dollar circulates 6 hours in the Black community, 20 days in the Jewish 
community, and 30 days in the Asian community. Black people have an 
estimated $1.3 trillion gross national income, but only 2 percent is 
recirculated in the Black community.
  Keeping Black dollars in the Black community is harder than it 
sounds. In her TEDx Talk about the impact of Black dollars being spent 
outside of the Black community, author and activist Maggie Anderson 
shares a story about an empowerment experiment during which her family 
attempted to purchase Black-made products from Black-owned businesses 
for 1 year.
  Anderson uncovered a discouraging picture of a vast economic divide. 
She discusses how L'Oreal owns one of the largest Black beauty brands 
in the world, SoftSheen-Carson, demonstrating a White-owned business 
profiting from a market of exclusively Black buyers.

                              {time}  1115

  She estimates that up to 80 percent of the revenue of White-owned 
Hennessy cognac comes from Black consumers, but the company has no 
Black distributors or suppliers and does not advertise in Black-owned 
media.
  The Empowerment Experiment resulted in a landmark study conducted by 
Steven Rogers at the Northwestern University Kellogg School of 
Management, which proved how supporting Black-owned businesses can 
benefit the Black community, as well as the American economy as a 
whole.
  In Anderson's book, ``Our Black Year: One Family's Quest to Buy Black 
in America's Racially Divided Economy,'' she notes that if Black 
spending with Black businesses rose from the current 3 percent to 10 
percent it could create a million new jobs and provide economic 
security to countless Black households.
  Lack of access to financial services is not just a symptom of 
America's racial wealth gap; it is also a cause. Without the ability to 
efficiently save, invest, and ensure against risks, many Black families 
struggle to translate the income they earn to genuine generational 
wealth.
  Based on data from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finance, 
the typical Black family has only 10 cents for every dollar held by the 
typical White family.
  This wealth gap dates back to the decades after emancipation and has 
remained stubbornly persistent. Redlining, a practice that designates 
Black communities as unfavorable for home loans and business 
investment, reduces property values and increases interest rates in 
many neighborhoods, trends that have impacted African Americans for a 
century.
  Largely excluded from the generous financial incentives of the New 
Deal, the Black community was boxed out of the country's post World War 
II boom that vastly expanded the American middle class.
  Despite laws prohibiting loan discrimination on the basis of race, 
the Congressional Black Caucus still calls on regulatory agencies to 
improve enforcement at a national level. Black and Latinx home buyers 
are significantly more likely than Whites to be turned down for a 
conventional mortgage loan.
  A recent analysis from Zillow shows that in 2016, nearly 21 percent 
of Black applicants were denied a conventional loan, while 15.5 of 
Latinx were. And in 2016, Asian applicants were denied a conventional 
loan in 10.4 percent of cases--slightly more than the national 
average--and Whites in only 8.1 percent of cases.
  According to a New America report, many banks also hinder Black 
wealth creation with discriminatory practices in service offerings.
  In communities of color, banks charge more for opening and 
maintaining basic, entry-level checking accounts.
  The minimum opening deposit is higher in majority Black 
neighborhoods, $80.60, and in neighborhoods without a racial majority, 
$97, than in White neighborhoods, $68.50.
  The solution is that there is a need to help support MDIs and CDFIs 
but not only with deposits.
  Mr. Speaker, this is an urgent issue. I urge my colleagues in this 
Chamber to consider the dictates of this statement and act to help all 
Americans realize their American Dream.

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