Employment is a major contributor to wealth accumulation. ?We?ve seen a game change in blacks getting white collar jobs,? says Tom Shapiro, director of the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at the Heller School at Brandeis University. ?The African-American middle class is no longer coming out of a service industry serving only the black community,? he says. These advancements are underplayed. However, the wealth gap between whites and African-Americans has tripled since 1984. Shapiro?s research estimates the wealth gap for median white households compared to black households grew from $85,000 in 1984 to $236,500 in 2009.