Race used to be a key indicator of the possibility of social mobility in the U.S. Now, as the country becomes increasingly more diverse, race seems to be playing a smaller role in achieving the so-called "American Dream," a new study by Harvard University suggests.
The study looked at two groups, a Gen X cohort born in 1978 and a millennial cohort born in 1992. The data covered 57 million children and researchers looked through decades of anonymized census and tax records to which the federal government gave them access to. Adjusting for inflation, they then measured these groups' ability to rise to the middle and upper classes.
For centuries, one's community had a huge effect on economic mobility, which then gave a high advantage for white Americans, even those born into low-income families, according to The New York Times. Now, that doesn't seem to be the case.
While many racial disparities remain present today, Black people on average still make less money than their white counterparts for instance, dynamics in mobility have changed.
The study found that Black millennials born to low-income parents had an easier time rising than the previous Black generation did. At the same time, white millennials born to poor parents had a harder time than white Gen X to do the same.
By the numbers, when Black Gen X workers turned 27 years old in 2005, their expected income, adjusted for inflation, was low, at $21,570. Black millennials in 2019 fared better, with $22,990 in annual income. Meanwhile, white Gen X could expect to make more than $34,000 annually, while white millennials in 2019 fared worse, making around $32,510 annually.
But racial differences weren't the only findings. The researchers also found that over the decade and a half of the study, the opportunity gap between white people born rich and those born poor expanded by roughly 30 percent. According to Raj Chetty, the study's lead author, one possible interpretation for this is that "class is becoming more important" in America, while race is becoming less so.
The study points out the availability of jobs as a possible reason for why things got worse for poor white people and their communities. The researchers found that community employment levels are an important predictor of differences in economic mobility.
At the same time, over the past few decades, globalization and changes in technology have caused many jobs to go from the United States to China, India and elsewhere. These shifts appear to have pushed white people out of the workforce, while Black people found other jobs, The New York Times explains.
Later on, as these shifts happened, white workers might have had more wealth or savings to weather unemployment than their Black counterparts did, but at a cost of their upward mobility. They might also have been less willing to find another job.
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