For those who need a quick refresher on how the different racial/ethnic groups in American society compare across various socioeconomic measures such as income, education, homeownership, etc., as CBS News reports, the Census Bureau has just released data from 2005 that show how disparities continue to exist among the different races and, in many cases, such disparities are getting larger:

“Race is so associated with class in the United States that it may not be direct discrimination, but it still matters indirectly,” said Dalton Conley, a sociology professor at New York University and the author of “Being Black, Living in the Red.” “It doesn’t mean it’s any less powerful just because it’s indirect,” he said.

Home ownership grew among white middle-class families after World War II when access to credit and government programs made buying houses affordable. Black families were largely left out because of discrimination, and the effects are still being felt today, said Lance Freeman, assistant professor of urban planning at Columbia University and author of “There Goes the ‘Hood.” Home ownership creates wealth, which enables families to live in good neighborhoods with good schools. It also helps families finance college, which leads to better-paying jobs, perpetuating the cycle, Freeman said.

Black families have also been hurt by the decline of manufacturing jobs — the same jobs that helped propel many white families into the middle class after World War II, said Hilary Shelton, director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Washington office.

This article and these findings highlight the paramount importance of homeownership as a vehicle for economic mobility and it briefly shows why Blacks have largely been denied those opportunities through past and present segregation and housing discrimination. The cumulative effects of those disadvantages are now making themselves apparent in the lives of Blacks.

The bottom line is that for these racial disparities to be adequately addressed, eliminating individual-level prejudice is nice, but not sufficient. Along with changing the lifestyle choices of some minorities, the answer lies with eliminating the barriers to affordable homeownership and reducing the effects of the continuing segregation of Blacks from high quality neighborhoods and by implication, mainstream American society.

Unfortunately, that’s going to be even more difficult now, since housing prices continue to put even modest homes out of reach for many working class and even middle class families of all races. Rather than relying on “the market” to make the necessary accommodations, this is where the federal government can lend a helping hand by reducing taxes on the working and middle classes and expanding its first-time homeowners programs.

There will certainly be costs involved, but as the data show, it’s an investment that will definitely pay off in the years to come.