Forced, unpaid labor established some of the finest educational, economic and structural systems in America today. For example, Yale University’s first scholarship, first endowed professorship and first library were established with slavery profits. Even now, eight of Yale’s twelve schools bear the names of wealthy slave owners, and Yale is not alone. Rhode Island slave trader, John Brown, used his profits to create what was later known as Fleet Boston Bank and what later became Brown University, another one of today’s most prestigious Ivy League schools. Many of our country’s businesses have also profited from the objectification and commodification of African people. Aetna Insurance Incorporated, the largest insurer in the U.S. today, began issuing insurance policies to slave owners in 1853 for “property” losses and damages; CSX railway cars run on rails that were constructed by slaves. Slave laborers also built our nation’s White House, Capitol Building and even the wall for which Wall Street is named. In fact, African slaves were the first “stock” sold on the New York Stock Exchange.

It is important to note here that black people helped establish an infrastructure that ensured the financial freedom and stability of wealthy white people in America, which has been passed down from generation to generation. America is not a meritocracy in the fundamental sense of the term. Many of the people who enjoy the most wealth today are the direct descendants of yesterday’s elite. Statistically, the wealthy in America have reproduced and maintained their wealth with alarming success. In 1900, 39 percent of the wealthiest men in America came from wealthy families; by 1950 this percentage had jumped to 68 percent and had risen further to 82 percent in 1970. Today it is estimated that up to 80 percent of one’s lifetime wealth accumulation results from gifts in one form or another from past generations of relatives. These gifts can range from the down payment one’s home, to payment for college education, to a bequest upon the death of a parent. While the privileged in America passed down its assets from one decade to the next, because blacks had no infrastructure of their own to correct for the ills of slavery and because they were kept outside of the white infrastructure, black folks passed their woes on from generation to generation.

Since slavery began, our country has created a number of programs to restrict black economic and social mobility. Though black slaves were denied the “40 acres and a mule” promised by the Freedmen’s Bureau, the U.S. used white reparations to separate white laborers from black laborers. In 1705, after great displays of lower-class unrest, Virginia, a prime slave state, began privileging white indentured servants over their black counterparts by giving them fifty acres of land, corn, money and a musket. Additionally, Virginia passed laws that sold black assets for the benefit of poor whites and legally allowed and encouraged poor whites to beat blacks with impunity. Since emancipation, obstacles such as the Black Codes, lynching, Jim Crow laws, and redlining kept black people from realizing the American dream while programs such as the Homestead Act, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation, and the Servicemen's Readjustment Act helped encourage white socio-economic stability and mobility. Today white households in the United States possess between five and ten times the net worth of black households and hold twice the earnings of black households. Still, the makeup of today’s elite reflects the racial privileges of our forefathers; there are only two African American people (Oprah Winfrey and Bob Johnson) on Forbes list of the wealthiest 400 people in America, and they are at the lower end of the list.