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A review by drschroe
The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap by Mehrsa Baradaran
5.0
This book should be required reading in every single American History class, let alone business and financial literacy classes -- in high school, college and graduate school.
Far more than what the title implies, lawyer and professor Mehrsa Baradaran outlines clearly and accessibly that the financial benefits, from the establishment of the US government to today, were set up for and proactively reinforced to exclude Black Americans.
Why is it taking so long for white supremacy practices to be discontinued/overturned? Because they are so embedded within the fiber of every aspect of the US governmental systems, at the national, state and local levels. Many people over the centuries have tried to work to enable kidnapped and formerly enslaved Black people to invest in their own banks and communities. Any time there was success, white people responded with indignation, opposition, and outright violence and destruction (ref Wilmington, NC and Tulsa, OK).
Black leaders tried, again and again, to adapt and adopt the financial systems that were set up to benefit white people, only to find the white financial system and legislators committed to ensuring they failed. The roller coaster of hope and success followed by failure and destruction is a part of deep anti-Blackness that continues today.
For anyone wondering, "What does it mean to say that racism is more than individual, it is systemic?" please read this book. You will have no questions at the end, except for, "How do we keep electing people who are so deeply invested in keeping anyone other than white people from succeeded in this country?"
Far more than what the title implies, lawyer and professor Mehrsa Baradaran outlines clearly and accessibly that the financial benefits, from the establishment of the US government to today, were set up for and proactively reinforced to exclude Black Americans.
Why is it taking so long for white supremacy practices to be discontinued/overturned? Because they are so embedded within the fiber of every aspect of the US governmental systems, at the national, state and local levels. Many people over the centuries have tried to work to enable kidnapped and formerly enslaved Black people to invest in their own banks and communities. Any time there was success, white people responded with indignation, opposition, and outright violence and destruction (ref Wilmington, NC and Tulsa, OK).
Black leaders tried, again and again, to adapt and adopt the financial systems that were set up to benefit white people, only to find the white financial system and legislators committed to ensuring they failed. The roller coaster of hope and success followed by failure and destruction is a part of deep anti-Blackness that continues today.
For anyone wondering, "What does it mean to say that racism is more than individual, it is systemic?" please read this book. You will have no questions at the end, except for, "How do we keep electing people who are so deeply invested in keeping anyone other than white people from succeeded in this country?"