Longer term, the report says the gap must be addressed by expanding healthcare access for all Americans. In New York City, the center of the pandemic, Covid-19 is killing black and Latino people at twice the rate of white patients. One factor is the higher proportion of uninsured people in communities of color.

In the 12 weeks between 18 March and 11 June, the combined wealth of all US billionaires increased by more than $637bn to a total of $3.581tn, more than the entire wealth of the US’s 59 million Latinx population combined and equal to three-quarters of all Black wealth, according to an analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).

Over the same period, 44 million Americans lost their jobs and filed for unemployment insurance. The numbers have declined from a one week peak of 6.6 million in April but are still historically high. More than 3 million people have filed for unemployment in the last two weeks alone. Latinx and African American people have been hit hardest by the layoffs.

The share of households of color with zero or “negative” wealth, meaning their debts exceed the value of their assets, is much higher than the share of white households. According to the report, 37% of black families and 33% of Latino families have zero or negative wealth, compared to just 15.5% of white families. Black Americans have a homeownership rate of just 44%, compared to a white homeownership rate over 70%.

By 2016, white median wealth had increased by $36,000 to $146,984, while Latino median wealth increased by only a couple thousand to $6,591.

multigenerational history of white supremacy