People of color in the United States typically have 15 percent of the net worth of their white counterparts, according to the Insight Center for Community Economic Development.
Two University of Arkansas School of Social Work professors, Kameri Christy-McMullin and Yvette Murphy, will attend a national gathering of experts and researchers at the Ford Foundation in New York City Oct. 29-30 with the goal of developing ways to dramatically increase this percentage.
The Insight Center and the Ford Foundation are co-sponsors of “Closing the Racial Wealth Gap,” and this year's conference is the fourth of five conferences planned to create and implement strategies to help communities of color build and retain assets and wealth. Participants include academics, researchers, governmental officials, financial institution representatives, policymakers, policy analysts, direct service providers and foundation representatives.
One strategy already in use is the Individual Development Account. Similar to retirement accounts, IDAs are tax sheltered, and a percentage of money deposited in them is matched by governmental agencies and other entities. Low-income families may use the money only on predetermined expenditures that allow them to build wealth, including home purchases, starting or expanding small businesses and postsecondary education and training.
Christy-McMullin and Murphy are considered national leaders in IDA research and are the first researchers in the country to conduct a longitudinal study on the outcomes of IDAs. Additionally, Christy-McMullin was the principal investigator on a project in Arkansas and New Mexico that involved conducting research at one of the sites selected for the first national IDA demonstration project in the United States.
This expertise was central to the Insight Center and Ford Foundation's decision to invite them out of hundreds of other nominees from around the country.
“To capture it in a nutshell, Drs. Murphy and Christy-McMullin have done innovative research and understand how to change barriers which prevent communities of color from developing and preserving assets,” said Anouk Shambrook, an Insight Center program manager who coordinated the invitation process.
“They are both doing cutting-edge research and understand how race and income intersect with asset policies and programs,” Shambrook said. “They have an understanding of how to change the system, and they have innovative ideas about how to close the racial wealth gap.”
Shambrook pointed out that having two invitees from one institution is unusual but was warranted in this case.
“Our goal was to have one person from one institution but in some cases we made an exception when it seemed like it was important to include two people's particular expertise,” she explained.