Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday the United States has a lot of work to do to bridge its racial wealth divide, arguing the economy has never been fair to minorities.
Her remarks came during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfast hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.
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“From Reconstruction to Jim Crow to the present day, our economy has never worked fairly for black Americans — or, really, for any American of color,” she said, according to a transcript of her prepared remarks. “Our administration has tried to change that; to ensure that neither the figurative bank of justice — nor any literal economic institution — fails to work for people of color.”
During her speech, Yellen said King understood the importance of economic forces in his larger pursuit of racial justice. The secretary quoted part of King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech in which he argued the country has given minorities “a bad check” with “insufficient funds.”
“It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned,” Yellen said, quoting King, according to a transcript. “[They’ve been given] a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds. But we refuse to believe the bank of justice is bankrupt!”
Yellen, former chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, said the pursuit of MLK’s dream is still in progress. Still, she touted racial justice initiatives at the Treasury Department, including its first equity review, that established what she said was the most diverse leadership in the department’s history and implemented COVID-19 relief packages with “equity in mind.”
The secretary also highlighted the department’s $9 billion investment into minority communities, announced last March. The initiative gave the funding to Community Development Financial Institutions and Minority Depository Institutions to help them provide loans and grants to minorities and minority-owned businesses.
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Real median income for white Americans was about $79,000 in 2019, while it was $56,000 for Hispanic Americans and $46,000 for black Americans, according to data from a 2019 Census report. Asian Americans topped the list with a median income of $98,000 in 2019. Additionally, white families averaged eight times the net worth of the median black family in 2019, according to a survey published by the Federal Reserve.
“Of course, no one program and no one administration can make good on the hopes and aspirations that Dr. King had for our country. There is still much more work Treasury needs to do to narrow the racial wealth divide,” Yellen said. “We also know that progress requires a constellation of actors across generations, in and out of government.”
