Wealth, not race is the prime determinant of inequality in the West
By Tunde Obadina
Much has been said and written in recent months about racial inequality. The loudest voices have been those who say western societies are endemically racist. They contend that centuries of white privilege and institutional racism have solidified race inequality, maintaining the structural subordination of black people to whites. This controversial view implies that blacks are socially and economically inferior to whites.
For centuries proponents of racial ideology can be divided into two schools. Firstly, those who argue that Africans and their descendants are naturally inferior because of biology or the curse of God. And secondly, those who maintain that black inferiority is the consequence of material conditions — though born equal blacks have been rendered lesser beings by their environment and upbring.
