The Color of Wealth 2009 Policy Summit
Wealth Building for All:
The Foundation for Economic Growth in the Global Market Place
March 23-24, 2009
Washington Court Hotel | Rayburn House Office Building, U.S. Capitol Complex | and the Member Room, Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building
Washington, DC
WHO: For the past four years, the Insight Center for Community Economic Development and the Ford Foundation have brought together some of the leading minds on asset building from the African American, Latino, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Native American communities.
WHAT: The Color of Wealth 2009 Policy Summit will bring prominent scholars, policy experts, and advocates from every major racial and ethnic group in the United States to Capitol Hill to discuss closing the racial and ethnic wealth gap with Members of Congress and their staff. The objectives of the summit are as follows: 1) Educate policymakers on the racial wealth gap and the need to close it; 2) Share our Principles for an Inclusive Economy (PIE) with Members of Congress and staff; 3) Discuss how experts of color can be a resource to Members of Congress and their staff; 3) Learn about policy initiatives that could help close the racial wealth gap; and, 4) Learn about and deploy policy messages that effectively communicate the need to close the racial wealth gap.
WHY: The Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative works to educate the media and policy makers about the magnitude of the racial wealth gap, why it is important for the economy as a whole to close it, and provide policy recommendations on how to effectively address racial economic inequality.
BACKGROUND:The United States government has always played a role in subsidizing and incentivizing asset building. In 2005 alone, the U.S. invested over $367 billion in such support, in line with a rich history of wealth-building policies and programs, from the Homestead Act to the G.I. Bill to the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction. But these and many other asset-building policies have excluded people of color either explicitly or in the way they have been implemented, and over the years, have increasingly favored those who already hold assets. As a result, despite years of progress toward racial equality, today the average family of color holds only fifteen cents worth of assets to the white family’s dollar.
Wealth (what you own minus what you owe), or assets, are what allow families to weather the inevitable economic ups and downs of life. Even more significant is the transformative role that wealth plays in enabling people to move up the social and economic ladder. Without money for college tuition, home ownership, business start-up, retirement pensions, or to give one’s children a boost, many people of color are stuck at the bottom end of the economy. And in a globally competitive economy, unleashing the potential of all America’s people to generate economic growth and to fulfill the promise of the American dream is essential, and depends on our nation’s commitment to helping these families build up their assets.