Public Employee Press

Book Review
The U.S. wealth gap is colored black and white

Many people see the growing inequality in wealth among Americans in terms of class differences. But the new book, “The Color of Wealth,” whose authors are connected to the United for a Fair Economy organization, focuses on another dimension — race.

The difference in wealth is far greater than the disparity in income. People of color own only 10 percent of the assets of white families. While minority incomes have improved relative to white incomes in recent years, the authors look beyond current income to family assets, which are built up over decades and passed on over generations. Much of the disparity in wealth has been caused by long-term discrimination in the private sector.

And the benefits of many government programs, such as the GI Bill after World War II and the massive investment in transportation — which helped create suburbia — went mainly to white families.

The book offers suggestions that may seem radical today but have their precedents in the 1960s’ War on Poverty and the 1930s’ New Deal. Most important, they focus on the crucial intersection of race and class, which is forever ignored by policymakers.

Buy it or borrow it
“The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide,” was written by Meizhu Lui, Barbara Robles, Betsy Leondar-Wright, Rose Brewer and Rebecca Adamson with United for a New Economy and published in 2006 by The New Press. It sells for $19.95 and is available in the DC 37 Education Fund library on the 2nd floor at 125 Barclay St. in Lower Manhattan.

People of color support Democrats in the voting booth, but they are still waiting for programs to close the economic gap between them and whites, a new report from United for a Fair Economy says.

According to “State of the Dream 2007: Voting Blue, Staying in the Red,” the Democratic House leadership’s 100-Hour agenda on the minimum wage, drug benefits and college loans would benefit large numbers of blacks and Latinos. But these reforms are not enough to lift people out of poverty or change the persistent economic inequalities among the races.

That would require legislating affirmative action and other methods more targeted at minorities, such as full employment policies and an easier path to unionization. Legislation is also urgent to aid New Orleans and the victims of Katrina.

This report can be accessed on the United for a Fair Economy Web site —www.faireconomy.org — which is the first place to look for information about the unequal distribution of wealth by race and class.

— Ken Nash,
DC 37 Ed Fund Library