Date of Award
5-1-2025
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Mass Communication and Media Arts
First Advisor
Freivogel, William
Abstract
In 2021, households with a White householder made up 65.3% of all U.S. households and held 80.0% of all wealth. Those with a Black householder made up 13.6% of all U.S. households but held only 4.7% of all wealth. And their median wealth ($24,520) was about one-tenth the median wealth of households with a White householder ($250,400). This disparity in Black wealth and White wealth is almost an order of magnitude. I seek to understand why the racial wealth gap exists and what people of any race can learn from a nuanced understanding of the interplay among culture, education, and wealth. One case study in the dissertation focuses Black and White media personalities, comparing and contrasting the financial advice they give. The history of the Black-White wealth gap is entrenched in slavery, de jure segregation, de facto segregation, and ongoing racial discrimination. These effects include the Jim Crow laws, the sharecropping land ownership system, legalized discrimination, the failure to keep the Reconstruction promise of “40 Acres and a mule,” Congress passing unfair tax laws, redlining and financial discrimination related to housing, the tenfold wealth gap, and attempts to fix it with affirmative action. One solution is the benefit of educating Black students at historically Black colleges and universities such as Howard, Morehouse, and Spelman. Scholars argue for increasing Pell Grants so that they cover tuition, room, board and course materials to help more Blacks graduate debt-free. Black students have less access to generational wealth and are the most likely to rely on debt to finance their education. In this way, targeted debt relief could dramatically help Black students and college graduates. Another solution is more favorable representation of Blacks in the media. The research question is “can increased Black representation in the media, specifically among media financial gurus, address the racial wealth gap?” Stuart Hall argued that the solution to negative representations of Blacks were favorable portrayals of Blacks. These favorable portrayals show up in the three case studies of celebrity financial advisors, politicians, and university admissions committees. I argue that the power of philanthropist philosopher-kings in my three case studies shows that the media via public policy can intervene in the racial wealth gap.
Access
This dissertation is Open Access and may be downloaded by anyone.