One myth in American society that garners a lot of attention is that hard work pays off and that success only requires putting your best foot forward. While this idea sounds good in theory, there are some problems with this view. Disability advocates would argue that judging someone’s worth solely on their ability to labor is inherently discriminatory. And they are right. But there’s another point we should consider. Even many able-bodied workers struggle to make ends meet in this country. This is especially true for Black people. In fact, researchers at Northwestern University found that Black families have just one cent for every dollar that white families have. Their study revealed a tale of two Americas — one characterized by wealth and racial privilege, and the other marked by poverty and racial disadvantage. Still, the belief that hard work is the only ingredient needed to secure wealth persists. As sociologist Matthew Desmond noted, many people are unaware of “the fact that slavery didn’t just deny Black freedom but built white fortunes.” While many see themselves as separate from the country’s past, the racial wealth gap shows we’re all bound to it.
“[T]he association between socioeconomic status and race in the United States has its origins in discrete historical events but persists because of contemporary structural factors that perpetuate those historical injustices," said Camara P. Jones, MPH, PhD. "In other words, it is because of institutionalized racism that there is an association between socioeconomic status and race in this country.”
There is general acceptance that a racial wealth gap persists in this country. Disagreement arises, however, over who is responsible for this inequality. Some, buying into racist stereotypes, cast blame upon Black people, claiming they are either too lazy, undisciplined, or ignorant to bridge the divide. Research suggests there is a political component to this as well. For instance, Stern found that “conservatives are not only more likely to use stereotypes than are liberals but are especially likely to negatively evaluate counter-stereotypical people to organize the social world with greater certainty.” What many are avoiding, the white elephant in the room, so to speak, is systemic racism. This is what explains the schism. Over time, racist attitudes and beliefs have manifested in this nation’s laws and policies, perpetuating inequality. Black Americans are like Sisyphus, forced to push a boulder up a hill for their survival without ever reaping the rewards. Research has made it clear that there has been “no lack of effort on the part of Black workers.” The stereotypes that portray them as lazy are wrong, because “even in the face of persistent racial wealth gaps, labor market discrimination, occupational segregation, and other labor market obstacles, black workers continue to increase their annual hours and weeks worked per year .” If hard work were enough to guarantee success, Black Americans wouldn’t be at the bottom rung; they’d be among the wealthiest. Yet they are among the hardest-working, underpaid citizens.
In addition to the open racism of wanting to keep Black people down, some dismiss the poverty within the black community as simply a class issue. That is undoubtedly part of the equation, but even when we look more closely at those at the lower rungs of society, racial disparities persist. Consider, for instance, a 2023 Pew Research Center report that found “the typical lower-incomewWhite households had a net worth of $55,400,” the median net worth of lower-income Black households was significantly lower at $2,700. This indicates that, even when considering the median rate, which is more resistant to extreme outliers than the mean, the pattern of racial inequality holds. What separates these groups is their condition over time. Black families are more likely to endure multigenerational poverty. Researchers at the Brookings Center found “poverty persists much longer in Black families than White families” and that they “experience higher rates of poverty, less upward mobility, and more downward mobility (Winship et al., 2022).” Attempting to portray Black Americans as “lazy” is nothing more than a legitimizing myth, an effort to justify racial disparities, rather than address them.
You can encourage Black people to work hard until you’re blue in the face, but it won’t change the fact that racism stands as a barrier to economic opportunity. One study found that since 1979, “labor market returns to black workers continued to worsen relative to their white counterparts, regardless of age, education, occupation, and other socioeconomic demographics (Jones and Wilson, 2017).” This means that no matter how hard individual Black people work, they are not likely to earn as much for their labor as White people. Derenoncourt et al. (2024) found that “since the 1980s, the wealth gap has widened again as capital gains have predominantly benefited White households.” Today, Black Americans live in a society where the odds are stacked against them. While conservatives often accuse those who speak about racism as “playing the race card,” hundreds of years of American history shows Black people have been dealt a losing hand. That is not to say that some Black people aren’t successful, or that some White people are not struggling in poverty. These cases certainly exist. But when we look at the broader pattern of these groups, we see that racial disparities persist. And focusing on outliers doesn’t change that.
An editor for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Stephen Miller, noted Black workers still make less than their White counterparts. While companies often perform pay audits to address potential gender-based discrimination, he suggested they should also use this strategy to assess potential race-based discrimination, though this approach is less frequently employed. Roy Eduardo Kokoyachuk, a partner of ThinkNow Research, suggested this racial pay gap could be overcome if policymakers stepped up their “enforcement of employment anti-discrimination laws,” and offered “tax incentives for minority entrepreneurs and business owners.” As it stands, Black-owned businesses are more than twice as likely to be denied loans as white-owned businesses (Lendio, 2025). And any program designed to address racial discrimination faces fierce resistance. We saw this with opposition to race-based affirmative action policies in colleges and universities, as well as the anti-diversity movement.
There have been many metaphors used to describe the unjust conditions Black people have been forced to endure in America. Still, one of the most concise is presented in a cartoon by Emanu, a Swedish illustrator. It shows a race involving two people. On the left, we see the white man who has few obstacles in his path; many are easy to bypass. At the same time, the Black woman must overcome barbed wire, an alligator-filled swamp, taller structures, and a dagger-filled pit to reach the finish line. Seeing this image, we can’t for a moment believe the race between the two is fair, given the nature of the obstacles. However, systemic racism is often less noticeable in its presentation. For instance, one report showed that “African American students are twice as likely as white students to be in districts with funding below estimated adequate levels, and 3.5 times more likely to be in ‘chronically underfunded’ districts (Baker et al., 2024).” This indicates that even from the start, there is an uneven investment that plays a role in perpetuating racial inequality. However, since this cannot be seen easily with the naked eye, many deny the role racism plays.
Many believe that hard work pays off. But, given the condition of Black Americans, a group at the bottom rung of the social hierarchy, this is a myth, not a reality. There are many hard-working individuals who, for no fault of their own, are deprived of the opportunity for upward mobility. Racism, gender-based discrimination, and nationality, for example, have a significant impact on shaping someone’s experiences. While encouraging individuals to work hard may sound like good advice for those trying to keep up with the breakneck pace of society amid the rising cost of living, we have to reckon with the fact that some people are not physically capable of the traditional sense of hard work. And others work hard without reaping the rewards generally associated with a strong work ethic. Until America closes the racial wealth gap, socioeconomic status will not reflect someone’s willingness to work hard. On the contrary, their position will depend largely upon their identity.