Because We Are Black is an honest attempt to finally put to rest the question about why American Black citizens have less wealth in proportion to their population than American White Citizens. The first answer to this question is that the color of one’s skin, a person’s height, shape of one’s eyes or the texture of one’s hair should not have a bearing on whether one accumulates wealth. While all of the aforementioned human characteristic are used to define a person’s race, it is known that “race” is a social construct. A social construct is an identity assigned to a group based on rules made by society. The important point to know is that “race” does not have any physical or biological meaning. Because people have different eye shapes, hair texture, skin colorings or tallness, these human traits have nothing to do with people’s ability to save money, understand and utilize credit, acquire a quality education or be employed in high salaried positions. In addition, it has been proven that one’s sex (male or female) or sexual orientation does not interfere with 1people being fully functional human being in life’s market place. If the world we resided in was a perfectly rational universe, there would be no need for Because We Are Black to be written. Because we live in a world (America) where a massive number of individuals engaging collectively in inter-subjective thinking, race has been transformed from a social construct with no meanings to an actual fact with social implications. Therefore, in America, most White people and many Black people believe Black people have less wealth in proportion to their population because Black people are lazy, stupid, uneducated, seekers of instant gratification instead of long range planning and prone to immoral/illegal acts that place them on welfare roll or land them in jail. Because We Are Black offers historical data that debunks this thinking and offers some creative solution to resolve the wealth inequality issue. After providing data to show that American Black citizens have far less wealth in proportion to their population, Because We Are Black claims that racism is the cause.
