The Whiteness of Wealth
How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans--and How We Can Fix It
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4.0 • 35 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A groundbreaking exposé of racism in the American taxation system from a law professor and expert on tax policy
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND FORTUNE • “Important reading for those who want to understand how inequality is built into the bedrock of American society, and what a more equitable future might look like.”—Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist
Dorothy A. Brown became a tax lawyer to get away from race. As a young black girl growing up in the South Bronx, she’d seen how racism limited the lives of her family and neighbors. Her law school classes offered a refreshing contrast: Tax law was about numbers, and the only color that mattered was green. But when Brown sat down to prepare tax returns for her parents, she found something strange: James and Dottie Brown, a plumber and a nurse, seemed to be paying an unusually high percentage of their income in taxes. When Brown became a law professor, she set out to understand why.
In The Whiteness of Wealth, Brown draws on decades of cross-disciplinary research to show that tax law isn’t as color-blind as she’d once believed. She takes us into her adopted city of Atlanta, introducing us to families across the economic spectrum whose stories demonstrate how American tax law rewards the preferences and practices of white people while pushing black people further behind. From attending college to getting married to buying a home, black Americans find themselves at a financial disadvantage compared to their white peers. The results are an ever-increasing wealth gap and more black families shut out of the American dream.
Solving the problem will require a wholesale rethinking of America’s tax code. But it will also require both black and white Americans to make different choices. This urgent, actionable book points the way forward.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Insidious racism can rear its head where you least expect it. Tax attorney Dorothy A. Brown learned early on how the U.S. tax code perpetuates systemic racism, when she realized that her own parents—a plumber and a nurse—were paying an unusually high tax rate. In clear, conversational language, Brown explains how she spent decades uncovering how our tax system is constructed to ensure that only certain families can build wealth and achieve social mobility. We were floored by her jaw-dropping revelations on the myriad ways that American tax law favors white people, and she thoroughly supports them with statistical analysis and case studies of real-life families. Brown also offers concrete proposals of how to fix these inequities, including making property-tax subsidies available in neighborhoods with more than 10% Black homeownership and changing married-filing-jointly tax rates to better benefit families in which both partners work outside the home. These changes would benefit all middle- and lower-class taxpayers, regardless of race—it makes The Whiteness of Wealth a vital and educational read.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Emory University law professor Brown debuts with an illuminating exploration of how U.S. tax policies exacerbate the Black-white wealth gap. She begins with tax benefits afforded to married couples, explaining that single-earner households, which are statistically more likely to be white, pay less taxes than households in which both spouses work, which is more common in Black families. She also shows that Black homeowners accrue less wealth overall due to the lower cost of homes in majority-Black neighborhoods, examines how income inequality and different tax policies for for-profit and nonprofit schools make it difficult for Black Americans to pursue a college education, and suggests that Black employees who have access to a retirement account contribute less than their white colleagues because they are supporting other family members disadvantaged by systemic inequality. Brown's suggested reforms include reducing the number of deductions and exclusions in the tax code, and implementing a progressive tax rate for wealthy individuals and lower rates for those earning less than a living wage. Brown enriches her detailed data analysis with personal anecdotes and brisk history lessons. Policymakers will benefit from this expert look at a rarely discussed, yet seemingly fixable, piece of the racial inequality puzzle.
Customer Reviews
Excellent Book
This book is an excellent overview of the tax system and its impact on different racial groups. It is quite engaging and informative.
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