Authors: Melany De La Cruz-Viesca, Paul M. Ong, Andre Comandon, William A. Darity, Jr., Darrick Hamilton
Abstract: Fifty years after the national Kerner Commission report on urban unrest and fifty-three years after California’s McCone Commission report on the 1965 Watts riots, substantial racial disparity in education, housing, employment, and wealth is still pervasive in Los Angeles. Neither report mentions wealth inequality as a cause for concern, however. This article examines one key dimension of racial wealth inequality through the lens of home ownership, particularly in South Los Angeles, where the 1965 Watts riots took place. It also analyzes the state’s role in housing development in codifying and expanding practices of racial and class segregation that has led to the production and reproduction of racial inequality in South Los Angeles compared with Los Angeles County.
Key Findings
- Homeownership, a key driver of wealth, has contributed to great racial disparities in Los Angeles over the past fifty years. In South Los Angeles, for example, median home values for blacks and Hispanics in 1960 were $99,000, while the equivalent value for whites was $116,000. However, by 2015, that gap had increased substantially: While black and Hispanic home values were up to $300,000 and $270,000, respectively, white median home values had skyrocketed to $480,000.
- Similarly, while median household income (in 2015 dollars) declined for all races from 1960 to 2015 in South Los Angeles, minorities experienced the most significant decreases.
- The disparities are even greater when considering wealth in the city. In 2014, the median net household wealth for a white family was $255,000; for U.S.-born blacks, their equivalent wealth was a scant $4,000.
