Black Americans Are 16x More Likely to Be in 3rd-Generation Poverty than Whites

A new Brookings report finds that multigenerational poverty is much more likely to affect Black Americans than white Americans. One in five Black Americans are experiencing poverty for the third generation in a row, as opposed to one in 100 white Americans.

Researchers believe this Black-white gap in multigenerational poverty is the result of the relatively low income rates of earlier generations, limited upward economic mobility, and a downward mobility rate that is higher for Black people than their white counterparts. The findings conclude by indicating that the aforementioned racial gap has increased as time passes on, showing the persistence of economic injustice in the nation today.