Closing the Opportunity Gap: Building Equity in Oklahoma

Closing the Opportunity Gap: Building Equity in Oklahoma, outlines an equity agenda for Oklahoma’s future, one that acknowledges the racial wealth gap and income inequality as products of our collective history, culture, and public policies.  

• Click here for a 2-page summary 
• Click here for the full report
• Click here for a summary blog post 
• Click here for references, notes and source material 
• Click here for PowerPoint version of this report presented to John Hope Franklin Symposium (May 2013)
• Click here for a PowerPoint version of this report presented to DHS Policy & Practice Lect (April 2013)

When wealth is measured in terms of financial assets, i.e. a home or savings account, White households in Oklahoma have accumulated significantly more wealth and assets than the state’s households of color.  There is mounting evidence that assets – distinct from income – promote financial security, interrupt intergenerational poverty, and improve household health and quality of life.

Given Oklahoma’s rapidly changing demographics, persistent inequality is a structural impediment to development and a drag on economic growth. Diverse communities are inextricably linked by commerce, travel, and investment.  Thought leaders and policymakers cannot view equity as a sidebar in their efforts to invest in human and social capital and attract and grow businesses. Closing the opportunity gap for people of color is central, not peripheral, to a prosperous Oklahoma.