The Urban Institute has released a report that analyzes the Great Recession's impact on the racial wealth gap in America. Here is the abstract:

Income inequality understates the size of the economic gap between whites and minorities in the United States. In 2010, whites on average had two times the income of blacks and Hispanics, but six times the wealth. Analyses of wealth accumulation over the life cycle show that the racial wealth gap grows sharply with age. Wealth isn't just money in the bank, it's insurance against tough times, tuition to get a better education and a better job, savings to retire on, and a springboard into the middle class.

The study shows that the 2007-2009 downturn sharply decreased the wealth holdings of white, black and Hispanic families, with Hispanics experiencing the largest decline:

Like a lot of young families,many Hispanic families bought homes just before the recession. Because they started with higher debt-to-asset values, the sharp decline in housing prices meant an even sharper cut in Hispanics’ wealth. As a result, they were also more likely to end up underwater or with negative home equity. Between 2007 and 2010, Hispanics saw their home equity cut in half, compared with about a quarter for black and white families.

In contrast, black families lost the most in retirement assets, while white families experienced a slight increase. On average, blacks saw their retirement assets fall by 35 percent during the Great Recession,compared with a smaller(but still substantial) decline of 18 percent for Hispanic families.

"The racial wealth gap is deeply rooted in our society," Caroline Ratcliffe, one of the authors of the study, told the New York Times. "It’s here, it’s not going away, and we need to care about it."

Read the full report, which was funded in part by the Foundation's Great Recession initiative.