Download The Color of Money Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap Mehrsa Baradaran 9780674237476 Books
Download As PDF : The Color of Money Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap Mehrsa Baradaran 9780674237476 Books
“A deep accounting of how America got to a point where a median white family has 13 times more wealth than the median black family.â€
―The Atlantic
“Extraordinary… Baradaran focuses on a part of the American story that’s often ignored the way African Americans were locked out of the financial engines that create wealth in America.â€
―Ezra Klein
When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the black community owned less than 1 percent of the total wealth in America. More than 150 years later, that number has barely budged. The Color of Money seeks to explain the stubborn persistence of this racial wealth gap by focusing on the generators of wealth in the black community black banks.
With the civil rights movement in full swing, President Nixon promoted “black capitalism,†a plan to support black banks and minority-owned businesses. But the catch-22 of black banking is that the very institutions needed to help communities escape the deep poverty caused by discrimination and segregation inevitably became victims of that same poverty. In this timely and eye-opening account, Baradaran challenges the long-standing belief that black communities could ever really hope to accumulate wealth in a segregated economy.
“Black capitalism has not improved the economic lives of black people, and Baradaran deftly explains the reasons why.â€
―Los Angeles Review of Books
“A must read for anyone interested in closing America’s racial wealth gap.â€
―Black Perspectives
Download The Color of Money Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap Mehrsa Baradaran 9780674237476 Books
"One cannot read Mehrsa Baradaran’s examination of Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap without feeling rage or guilt. As an American Citizen, whose American Citizen grandmother was depatriated during the Depression (1.2 Mexican and Mexican American Citizens were deported), and whose family felt the devastating reality of redlining in Los Angeles during the 50’s, this book unearthed a deep pain in me.
The devastation of segregation, the internalization of failure and poverty without an understanding of the system that not only created but benefited from the anguish. This book left me exhausted and yet I like others who will read it will be left ultimately empowered.
As James Baldwin once said, “The American Soil is full of the corpses of my ancestors. Why is my freedom or my citizenship, or my right to live there, how is it conceivably a question now?†When will America repay its debt."
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Tags : The Color of Money Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap [Mehrsa Baradaran] on . “A deep accounting of how America got to a point where a median white family has 13 times more wealth than the median black family.†― The Atlantic</i> “Extraordinary… Baradaran focuses on a part of the American story that’s often ignored the way African Americans were locked out of the financial engines that create wealth in America.†―Ezra Klein When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863,Mehrsa Baradaran,The Color of Money Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap,Belknap Press An Imprint of Harvard University Press,0674237471,African American banks,African American banks - History,African Americans - Economic conditions,African Americans - Finance,Discrimination in banking,Discrimination in banking - United States - History,History,United States,Wealth,Wealth - United States - History,African American,BANKS AND BANKING,BLACKS IN THE U.S.,BUSINESS ECONOMICS / Banks Banking,BUSINESS ECONOMICS / Economic History,Banking,Banking Law,Black Asian Studies,Business Economics/Banks Banking,Business Economics/Economic History,Business Ethics Social Responsibility,Business/Economics,Cultural Studies,Economic History,General Adult,HISTORY / African American,History of the Americas,LAW / Banking,Non-Fiction,Popular Economics,SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies,SOCIAL STRATIFICATION,Social Science/Discrimination Racism,Social Science/Poverty Homelessness,Social Science/Social Classes Economic Disparity,UNIVERSITY PRESS,United States,Wealth,Wealth - United States - History,BUSINESS ECONOMICS / Banks Banking,BUSINESS ECONOMICS / Economic History,Business Economics/Banks Banking,Business Economics/Economic History,HISTORY / African American,LAW / Banking,SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies,Social Science/Discrimination Racism,Social Science/Poverty Homelessness,Social Science/Social Classes Economic Disparity,Banking,Banking Law,Black Asian Studies,Business Ethics Social Responsibility,Cultural Studies,Economic History,History of the Americas,Popular Economics
The Color of Money Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap Mehrsa Baradaran 9780674237476 Books Reviews :
The Color of Money Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap Mehrsa Baradaran 9780674237476 Books Reviews
- "to be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships."
- W.E.B. DuBois
Every few years there is a book that is so powerful it turns me into a book nerd, policy evangelical. I go out and buy several copies and press them into friends hands with the fervor of a recent convert and tell them they "NEED" to read it. I think the last nonfiction book to do this for me was 'Dark Money The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right' or maybe 'The Big Short Inside the Doomsday Machine.' Usually, the book has both a financial angle and a policy tint. It usually also explores unfairness. That makes sense. In my previous life I was a policy analyst and I now work in the finance industry as a financial planner. Most days, I'm a pretty mellow guy. I meditate, read, drink tea, Netflix and chill. But reading about inequality and unfairness, for me, catalyzes me for action.
If the last few political cycles have taught us anything, it is America still struggles with its "original sin" of slavery and the ugly descendants of slavery discrimination, segregation, inequality, despair. We have seen, just this week (actually for the last few years), protests about the way Black Americans are treated by police officers. That subject deserves its own space, so I wont dwell too much on that here, other than to say the interaction of Black Americans and police officers ISN'T simple. It isn't a subject that can easily be explained just by saying police are racists, or unarmed Black Americans should behave differently (different from whom?). There are structural, geographic, economic, historical, and political forces that all contribute to awful outcomes.
Just like blue on black violence isn't easily explained in a tweet or a FB post, the interaction between Black Americans and banks has a long, ugly, and painful history. It is a history that is important to understand if one REALLY wants to explore topics like income inequality, segregation, credit, crony capitalism, corruption, exploitation, state power, wealth, etc... Mehrsa's book explores the policies, laws, programs, politics, economics, and history of black banks AND the history of Black Americans with banks. She points a fairly bleak picture of the fault/chasm that exists between the two financial markets that exist in America. One is the banking structure that exists for a majority of Americans and doesn't need to be explored. But for years that economic structure, that allows people to save (AND BORROW) didn't exist for a large segment of Americans. And when it eventually did, it was skewed heavily. Separate was never equal in banking. Blacks paid a heavy price to save, to borrow (if they could). Even laws that were designed to help pull Americans out of poverty, accumulate wealth and avoid taxes through home ownership, benefited one segment of America while ignoring or fleecing the other.
It is a painful read. It is also necessary. Unlike Mehrsa Baradaran's* previous book, 'How the Other Half Banks Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy', this one spends little/less time on prescriptions. She is laser focused on what is wrong, what went wrong, and why. It is a dense (without ANY of the negative connotations typically associated with that word) book. One that required me to open THREE different post-it flag packages. I was marking things that were new, quotes that amazed, items I didn't want to forget and I often found myself marking 3 or 4 times a page.
A few caveats before I end. This isn't a perfect book. It isn't as exciting as a Michael Lewis book (this probably won't get made into a movie) and the prose isn't as pretty as Robert Caro's LBJ series. But it is important. It is a labor of both love and skill. Reading some chapters in it, I could tell Mehrsa spent months in presidential libraries. Well researched books give me a thrill. Especially when you recognize that a certain nugget of data or quote may never have seen the light of day if it wasn't for the doggedness of a skilled lawyer/historian. 'The Color of Money' deserves to be in the library of anyone who deals with or seriously thinks about income inequality, race, banking, inner cities, etc.
As a white, upper-middle, male who has benefited from educated parents, stability, wealth, and every advantage American history and politicians have blessed me with, it is difficult and humbling to realize just how many of the economic realities I take for granted every day weren't available to the parents of my black friends. Hopefully, more of these same financial realities WILL be available to the children of ALL my friends. Hopefully we can begin to cover both the scars of the disadvantaged, and the economic and social chasms that separate (unfairly) us. This book is both a bridge and a battle cry. - This book was shocking and powerful. As someone who does not generally read books about banking, I found it enthralling and heartbreaking. The author writes with an exceptional clarity that makes the material accessible and poignant. Before reading this book, I had never considered the connection between banking and racial injustice in America. Now, it’s hard to imagine any discussion of race that does not involve banking policy. Anyone interested in creating a more just society needs to read this book.
- I absolutely cannot say enough good about this book. I deal with these issues for a living, and this is, hands down, one of the best books I have ever read on putting together, dot, by dot, why we are where we are in 2017. How the author made it so compelling, readable, interesting and accessible is beyond me. The only negative thing I have to say is that the title does so little to belie the real significance of this book. It has a title that will turn off some because a book about banking sounds boring, and a book about a racial wealth gap would scare away those who would think it is too "radical." It is so neither!!! In a tremendously interesting way, the author does an incredible job of telling the story, step by step, of where we all find ourselves in 2017 and why. The factual, but not dry, story, is one that EVERYONE can learn from. It is truly, truly, an awesome book. I'm on my second read and I have recommended to everyone from my Uber driver to the head of the Finance department of a major university. Do yourself a favor and read it. You will NOT regret it!
- One cannot read Mehrsa Baradaran’s examination of Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap without feeling rage or guilt. As an American Citizen, whose American Citizen grandmother was depatriated during the Depression (1.2 Mexican and Mexican American Citizens were deported), and whose family felt the devastating reality of redlining in Los Angeles during the 50’s, this book unearthed a deep pain in me.
The devastation of segregation, the internalization of failure and poverty without an understanding of the system that not only created but benefited from the anguish. This book left me exhausted and yet I like others who will read it will be left ultimately empowered.
As James Baldwin once said, “The American Soil is full of the corpses of my ancestors. Why is my freedom or my citizenship, or my right to live there, how is it conceivably a question now?†When will America repay its debt.
