Informative Speech

    Imagine you grow 2 trees. You give one good water, good seed , good soil, and a good  sunlight. You give the other very poor water, poor soil, and a poor amount of sunlight. Would you expect both trees to grow the same? It is the same in America, as many minorities are not given adequate base resources needed to become successful. The American Dream is something that all citizens strive for. We all are promised an opportunity to go from rags to riches if you work hard, but it is much harder to do so as a minority. The idea of this American dream is incredible, but in reality highly disappointing.  This is the cause of what we know today as the racial wealth gap.

   The race wealth gap is the difference in wealth between races. Although there are a variety of causes for this, and the trend can differentiate throughout different parts of America, the trend remains mostly the same. Asians earn the most, followed by whites, then followed by a constant imbalance between blacks and Hispanics. Studies have shown that some of the base reasons for this gap are unfair to minorities, and are discriminatory. According to BrandonGaile , it was shown that the raw gap between black and white employees can be as high as 30%. The same company also said “Even though laws are in place in the US to prevent racial discrimination, it is difficult for those who experience the practice to do anything about it. The cases are often litigated and less than half of all claimants were represented by an attorney at their employment tribunal in 2011-2012.” This describes the reality for the country, as many people who experience racial discrimination can do little to nothing about it, as the action to combat this is rarely acted upon. Another research company  AAUW, when reporting about the gap also said “In 2013 the median white household had 13 times the wealth of the median black household — specifically, the median white household had about $134,000 to the median black household’s $11,000”. This information about the gap displays some frightening truth about our nation.

To fully understand the entirety of the wage gap, it is crucial to understand its underlying causes. The main cause expands to more than just the lack of education, but also includes an unequal opportunity in the workplace, a high and discriminatory incarceration rate, and discrimination in the workplace. The differences in education just in our area alone is astounding. In Virginia alone, the average test grade for white students in writing was 86%, while it was only 65% for black students. This is a major disadvantage for African Americans, as education is often stated as the key to success, but what many people don't understand is that success is the key to education. If someone does not perform well, then that is an indication that the education is not of quality. And if someone does not have a quality education, then how can they become successful? Exactly. Not having a good education makes it much harder to be successful. That is only one of the many factors contributing to the gap.

For example, African Americans also have to deal with discrimination in the workplace.  This is evident, as the popular website BrandonGaille said “U.S. employers are also more likely to turn away applicants if they have names that sound African-American” and also “Job seekers with white-sounding names get one callback per 10 resumes, while applicants with African-American sounding names get just one callback per 15 resumes.”  This shows that African Americans are less likely to be hired. African Americans still must also deal with high incarceration rates, which makes it difficult to even enter the workplace. When researching the topic, American Civil Liberties Union said “One out of every three Black boys born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, —compared to one of every 17 white boys.”  According to another company, the National Center for Biotechnology Information said “Blacks reported fewer adult convictions than whites, but an average of 2.5 more adult incarcerations.” African Americans also are more likely to get arrested for the same crime and more likely to receive a harsher sentence than whites.

These are very disappointing issues that our country faces today. It is stated that all men are created equal, but that is not the case, as countless amounts of minorities are put in an everlasting cycle of poverty, poor education, incarceration, and discrimination; all which play a part in the wealth gap that we know today.  There is no doubt that the country that we live in is the greatest country in the world, as we are provided with opportunity, education, and resources, but our society is also plagued with a neglect to minorities, which untitled plays a huge role in the racial wealth gap. If everybody had the same base structure regardless of race-  white, black, Hispanic, Asian- then we would see this gap shrink, making the American dream not only a dream by Americans, but a reality that is fair to everyone to achieve. To get rid of this gap we must strive for