- August 13, 2021 Social Justice
Sister Ida Berresheim reviews Dorothy A. Brown's book, "The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans—and How We Can Fix It."
Ray Boshara, senior advisor for the Institute for Economic Equity at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, was the presenter at a recent J.O.E. Talk (Justice, Outreach & Education) event, a speaker series aimed at education and action around cultural justice issues, sponsored by the St. Louis province's Racial and Cultural Justice Committee. His well-researched presentation pointed out the extraordinary disparity of wealth between Black and white populations. He also recommended several books, among them, Dorothy A. Brown’s The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans—and How We Can Fix It.
Well-educated at prestigious universities, Brown studied civil law and tax law. Her widely-documented book tells how the tax policies of the United States, many of them in effect from the Jim Crow era, continue the disparity of wealth, which has long existed between Black and white communities. Far too many current laws leave Black families without the ability to ascend the ladder toward a sustainable financial position, assuring them of a livable retirement and enabling them to leave wealth to their children.
Citing her family background, Brown reveals both the luck as well as hard work that helped her family begin the arduous process necessary for home ownership. The reader learns that Black families were subjected to policies and practices that excluded and exploited them in both the public and private sectors, particularly during a boom in white American home ownership following World War II. Many of these policies and practices still contribute to Black and white wealth disparity today.
Brown also tells how tax and other economic policies are implemented differently for Blacks and whites depending upon their married or single status, educational levels and social class. She documents many practices that can affect job applications, which ultimately can unduly affect one’s livable income. Well documented are policies and practices that lead to Blacks’ inability to secure home and business loans and college admission. Too often applications for entrance into a college or university can rise or fall on how the potential interviewer judges the name of an applicant as Black or white.
Education and educational institutions underscore other inequalities that exist between Black and white wealth, making an uphill climb for Black applicants. Although most poor applicants are seriously affected, the climb does not apply to white persons to the same degree as to Blacks.
Disparity in taxes, loans and loan debt testify to this ongoing inequality. The schools at which an applicant has studied, previous jobs, the “acceptable” extra-curricular activities that one has participated in can all give rise to acceptance being “in the eye of the beholder." The wealth of the family and whether partial tuition has been a gift are among considerations that enter into the calculation of student debt.
True to Brown's intent, serious study of tax policy and practice is the only way to right some of the serious wrong that give rise to the disparity that exists between Black and white wealth.