A family’s financial security and peace of mind begin with building wealth – that cushion of money remaining after debts and obligations are paid. Wealth insulates families against financial hardship and allows them to plan for the future.

A new study by The New School’s Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy – the first-of-its-kind to examine how wealth intersects with race, ethnicity and country of origin across the Chicago metropolitan area – found inequities in the ability to accumulate wealth that result in a troubling divide along racial and ethnic lines. In Chicago, the median net worth of white families is $210,000. For U.S.-born Mexican families, it’s $40,500. And for Black families, it’s $0. These diverging fortunes result in lower homeownership rates, less home equity, more debt and less savings, which affect the whole region’s economic vitality.