The racial wealth gap in America is both striking and durable. It is neither inexplicable that the gap exists, given the history of the country, nor surprising that it persists, given the nature of wealth. As the authors note in this report:

“[W]ealth begets more wealth. Higher levels of wealth enable greater access to more favorable terms for credit. Wealth provides individuals and families with financial agency and choice; it provides economic security to take risks and shields against the risk of economic loss. Basically, wealth is cumulative. It provides people with the necessary capital to secure finance and purchase an appreciating asset, which in turn, will generate more and more wealth (Hamilton, 2017). Literally, it takes wealth to make wealth, while blacks largely have been excluded from intergenerational access to capital and finance.”

It is perhaps because these inequities in wealth are so large that many feel compelled to try to explain why they exist. And so they offer myriad explanations for the wealth gap, each of which this report painstakingly debunks.