The system is designed for white wealth.
Show Notes
In tax law, most people think the only color that matters is green. But, after more than two decades of research, tax scholar Dorothy A. Brown discovered that America's tax system is not color-blind. In fact, societal racism is deeply embedded in it. "Regardless of what white and Black Americans do, tax policy subsidizes white Americans and disadvantages Black Americans," she says. From attending college to getting married to buying a home, Black Americans are financially disadvantaged compared to their white peers. In a conversation with Ida Rademacher, executive director of the Financial Security Program at the Aspen Institute, Brown talks about her book, The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans—and How We Can Fix It.
Learn More
Additional Information
Explore
Related episodes
In this pandemic recession, millions of Americans are going hungry, and Black and Hispanic households are hit harder than white ones. Throughout US history, hunger and health have been tied to race and now Covid-19 is affecting low-income, communities of color disproportionately.
It’s time to slow down and start again to remake American culture and undo systemic racism, says author and Yale professor Claudia Rankin. White Americans must wade into the waters of Whiteness, and interrogate their own responses to Blackness.
Wes Moore, author of "Five Days: The Fiery Reckoning of an American City" (written with Erica Green), says communities around the United States must confront systemic racism.