The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara Analysis

In the short story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bombara, the main character Miss Moore strives to teach her students about the income inequality that African Americans are faced with. Income inequality is the “significant disparity in the distribution of income between individuals, groups, populations, social classes, or countries” as defined by Britannica. Since Emancipation Day in 1865, African Americans have been faced with income inequality and barriers that have prevented wealth accumulation. If any one person was asked about the origin of the income inequality faced by African Americans, the initial thought may be slavery or racist Jim Crow laws. However, income inequality and racial wealth gap is more likely the result of “legally mandated segregation in schools and housing, discrimination in the labor market, and redlining” (Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland). Also contributing to the current racial wealth gap between African Americans and the Caucasian majority in the United States is the “government policies and institutional practices” (American Progress) that had adverse effects on the African American community; the effects of such practices can still be seen in society today.

Following the abolition of slavery in 1865, African Americans were still subject to persistent discrimination from much of the country, which had detrimental effects on their education. The segregation of public schools particularly negatively impacted the education of African Americans and their subsequent income. Throughout the 1900’s, African American schools had to cope with the lack of educational resources to adequately teach those that were enrolled in their school in stark contrast to schools that were attended by white students. The lack of resources often led to students receiving a subpar education which restricted their educational opportunities, most notably a post-secondary education. The lack of a post-secondary education for a large portion of the African American community resulted in their entering into the lower paying and unskilled jobs of the labor market. A study at Vanderbilt University found that the annual income of a southern-born black man in the 1920’s, who had access to the same resources as a white-born southern man, was estimated to be as much as five to nine percent lower than that of the white man. The conclusion of the study stated that “the link between school quality and subsequent income was made primarily through increased educational attainment” (Vanderbilt). With the help of Vanderbilt’s study, the segregation of schools can be determined to be a major factor that led to lower incomes of those within the African American community during the early 1900’s as well as subsequently effected generations.

For the African Americans fortunate enough to graduate from their secondary and post-secondary schooling, a difficult and demoralizing journey to find meaningful employment awaited them. Although the Civil Rights Act, which was passed in 1964, encouraged change in the labor market, discriminatory white business owners were reluctant to embrace the change. Despite their reluctance, many white business owners inevitably started to employ large amounts of African Americans. The most noticeable change in the labor market was seen at southern textile mills where most of the employees were traditionally white. One case noted that “the share of black employees in South Carolina textiles jumped from less than 5 percent in 1963 to more than 20 percent in 1970” (Yale). Although the number of employed African Americans began to rise, their hardships were far from over. A prominent problem faced in the workforce was that “black workers had long struggled against segregated promotion lines that denied them access to higher-paying skilled and supervisory positions” (Yale). The long-lasting exclusion of admittedly capable African Americans, that allowed their white counterparts to fill higher paying positions, demonstrates the racial injustice linked to the causes of income inequality. 

In the early 1930’s, the United States government instituted many policies that negatively affected African Americans and restricted their accumulation of wealth. The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) was created by the U.S. government in 1934 to “facilitate home financing, improve housing standards, and increase employment in the home-construction industry” (Britannica). Although the FHA was made to improve the lives of everyone involved in real estate, African Americans were hurt by its policies which seemingly favored whites. The main idea that the FHA embraced was that “if [African Americans] bought near these suburbs, the property values of the homes they were insuring, the white homes they were insuring, would decline. And therefore, their loans would be at risk” (NPR). The FHA’s new way of doing business led to the creation of “redlining” in which the Federal Government created color coded maps of every metropolitan area in the country that indicated where it was safe to insure mortgages. The neighborhoods that were predominantly inhabited by African Americans were labeled in red (NPR). The process of redlining limited access to homes for African Americans, which is the primary wealth-gaining tool of most Americans. Redlining has tragically affected the financial stability of those in the African American community and has had a detrimental impact on their ability to accumulate wealth.

In modern times, the United States is significantly less discriminatory towards African Americans than it was throughout history, and specifically the 1900’s. Although laws are no longer passed that create additional income inequality and barriers that prevent wealth accumulation, African Americans continue to be affected by policies from the past. In recent times, the economic condition of the African American community is in dire straits, and there are indications that “the median white American family has twelve times the wealth that their black counterparts have” (epi.org). This grave statistic results in the median wealth of an African American being only $11,030, while their white counterparts have a median wealth of $134,230 (epi.org). The economic effects of the United States governments discriminatory legislation and policies is widely recognized across the United States even today. In light of these practices, Richard Rothstein who is the author of “The Color of Law” says that “We must build a national political consensus leading to legislation a challenging but not impossible task, to develop policies that promote an integrated society” (Color of Law). In recent times, congress continues to work diligently to give African Americans more economic stability. However, the effects of the discriminatory practices have caused African Americans to be adversely affected by the economic disadvantages that have coincided wealth inequality and lack of wealth accumulation. 

Throughout the history of the United States, African American have been disadvantaged economically by their white counterparts. Following the passing of the Civil Rights Act, effects of those discriminatory policies that created a poor economic situation have compounded over time that has furthered the racial wealth gap and income inequality. In “The Lesson” when Miss Moore brought her students to the toy store to show the radical difference in the wealth gap between the rich and the poor, the students could not understand how someone could spend that much money on a toy. Initially, many of the children did not learn that day, but will soon learn to recognize that economic inequality is the reason, and they will be disadvantaged as they grow. The factors that have created severe economic inequality such as “legally mandated segregation in schools and housing, discrimination in the labor market, and redlining” (Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland) will forever change the outcome of millions of African American Lives for the worse.