The equality calculator is a learning tool to help us understand and quantify how race has given white folks unearned financial advantage over, and on the backs of, people of color. Part of dismantling racism requires redistributing the resources it has unfairly allocated. Ultimately, redistribution must happen at the systemic level, but it is also important that we recognize that systemic racism gives us individual and collective financial privilege. Thus, if we are able, we have a disproportionate obligation to give back to the BIPOC-led organizing to dismantle this system. This calculator stores no information whatsoever – it is simply an interactive educational tool.

WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT?

The creation of race coincided with and facilitated our country’s founding. As a result, racism has always been embedded in our economic and social systems.

The system of race legalized the theft of labor, land, and lives of Black and Indigenous people. At the same time, it exclusively granted rights to people (men) classified as white. This made the most significant expenses in business – labor, land, and resources- to be essentially free. In turn, this enabled the US to become the largest economic and military power in human history.

This cemented the racial allocation of resources and power in every American institution. And, it is why wealth and power are primarily still allocated by race today. READ MORE about this tool below.

Equality Calculator

UNDERSTAND THE RACIAL WEALTH GAP

Giving Calculator

Enter Your Monthly Income

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The amount of income you make each month

Enter Your Family Net Worth

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Family's total assets minus total debts

Based On What You Entered...

Your Black Income Equivalent is:

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Your Latinx Income Equivalent is:

$

(Your income at the rate of the median Black or Latinx worker)

Unearned Income Advantage over Black Workers is:

$

Unearned Income Advantage over Latinx Workers is:

$

(The extra money you have each month relative to the median Black or Latinx worker)

Your Black Net Worth Equivalent is:

$

Your Latinx Net Worth Equivalent is:

$

(Your family's net worth at the rate of the median Black or Latinx family)

Unearned Wealth Advantage vs Black Families is:

$

Unearned Wealth Advantage vs Latinx Families is:

$

(The extra net worth your family has relative to the median Black or Latinx family)

Your Monthly Giving Capacity is...

$

If you are human, leave this field blank.

MORE ABOUT THE EQUALITY CALCULATOR

This simple model is a teaching tool about how resources are allocated by race. We hope this provokes thought and discussion on reallocating resources to dismantle this unfair system.

To be truly accurate, this calculator would require gender, sexual orientation, age, region, education, job sector, role, etc. to be included in the calculation, and someday we might build that calculator. Still, for now, the point is to bring awareness to this essential component of anti-racism.

Additionally, we would have liked to include data on comparable wages and wealth of Native American Indigenous workers and families. Still, there are no recent comparative data available to include in this calculator. We hope to update this tool to have that vital information when it becomes available, but you can read about the Native wealth gap here.

The wages data used in this calculator are from the Economic Policy Institute’s 2019 State of Working America report. This report found that median Black and Latinx workers’ wages were 75.6% and 74.6%, respectively, compared to median white workers’ wages. The net worth data used in this calculator are from the Federal Reserve’s 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances. This found that the typical white family has eight times the wealth of the typical Black family and five times the wealth of the typical Latinx family.

LEARN MORE ON THE ECONOMICS OF RACISM

Rich Thanks to Racism: How the Ultra-Wealthy Profit from Racial Injustice by Jim Freeman

The Color of Wealth

WHAT CAN I DO?

Making a sustaining monthly contribution to grassroots BIPOC-led racial justice organizations is the fastest, easiest, and one of the most impactful things we can do as white folks.

Organizing a group in your community is also one of the best ways to help.

Our self-guided Accountability Plan is also a useful tool to have an impact to address the racial wealth gap.