What are the causes for the differences between white and black wealth?

There are obviously many factors in play here, racism is one obvious factor, education is another major problem since public education is predominantly funded via local property taxes, this produces areas with good schools and high property values and areas with poor schools and low property values. Instead of education being a tool for lifting people up, it’s a mechanism to further entrench existing wealth and classes, reducing social mobility. Another major factor is the rise of the prison industrial complex, with private prisons becoming big business. This has created perverse incentives to lock up as many people as possible to generate very cheap labor. The result of these perverse incentives is that we have lawmakers being encouraged to get tough on crime, and this has a hugely disproportionate affect on racial minorities in America. See the school-to-prison pipeline.

Nearly 75% of all children born to black mothers are born into single parent homes.
There are too many single black mothers.
Work on that first!

“The black community’s 72 percent rate eclipses that of most other groups: 17 percent of Asians, 29 percent of whites, 53 percent of Hispanics and 66 percent of Native Americans were born to unwed mothers in 2008, the most recent year for which government figures are available. The rate for the overall U.S. population was 41 percent.”

IMHO there are many factors entering into this seemingly complicated situation. The failure to form a nuclear family with two parents is definitely large. Actually it is huge. I believe two parent families are more successful in most ways. Educationally as well.

Causes. That made me laugh. Some people steal, some earn, some inherit, some win. Any color folk can do all of the above.

Assuming we’re talking about America, and not the world…

Many whites had multiple generations established, before the freeing of the slaves (the ancestors of the majority of black Americans.)

A freed slave population had little/no possessions/land, or education. Certainly no political power… Many had to start from scratch, into a world being forced to assimilate with them over time.

Whether you are freed, or born into poverty, it’s a huge disadvantage. Parents in impoverishment work longer hours, for less money, and as a result are not around their offspring as much. So. They have less opportunity to teach/raise their children.

Then there is the school situation, addressed above.
And incarceration rates, due to poverty.

There have been great strides made, in civil coexistence.

Still though, the black community has more disadvantages. Multiple studies have shown that two applicants to a job can have the same credentials, but a name that insinuates a “brown” person is less likely to be considered for the same job. Example. Ladarius Washington, versus Gary Washington. Ladarius is less likely (don’t remember the actual %) to even be considered by some employers, because the applicant is perceived as “black.”.. (side note, look up “white privilege.”)

Whites are more likely to have established wealth, built by generations.

Blacks are more likely to be the first, or second generation of wealth building.

Whites are more likelyto “know the right people.” More likely to have established acquaintances, that can help them navigate/circumvent things that would hinder ordinary people.

Projection of “wealth.”

The two races (white/black) generally, have cultural differences in how many choose to spend their money. At least as far as those who project stereotypes (the “loudest” of both races.) A lot of what I would consider “young black” culture, could be perceived as glorifying a showing off of money i.e. rims, jewelry, shoes, grills, huge bar tabs/parties etc.
(Stuff, I see, as a poverty thing. Think Elvis. He was impoverished growing up, and had trouble getting food. When he became rich, he adorned himself with gold, and essentially ate himself to death…)

The difference between the two races wealth, usually depends on the person’s starting point. With obvious exceptions, and anomalies…

One recent huge negative impact in minority wealth in the U.S. was the housing market collapse around 2008.
A disproportionate amount of the people caught up in home loans that never should have been granted were minorities and many of them lost their life’s savings when their homes were foreclosed.

ALL of it comes down to the legacy and consequences of racism, past and present, deliberate or unintentional. Education: no explanation necessary. Single parent households: the men are all in jail. The men are all in jail: the laws are engineered to see to it that black men go to jail. Throw out any reason you choose for the plight of black people in America, and an examination will bring you inevitably to the R word.