The Black Tax

The Cost of Being Black in America

By: Shawn D. Rochester

Narrated by: Derrick E. Hardin

Length: 3 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

While Black Americans have long felt the devastating effects of anti-black discrimination, they have often had great difficulty articulating and substantiating both the existence and impact of that discrimination to an American public who is convinced that it no longer exists. Professionals in academia, the media, and the business community, along with people in the general public have struggled to explain the significant and persistent gaps (in wealth, employment, achievement and poverty) between Black and White communities in what they perceive to be a post racial America.

In his new book The Black Tax: The Cost of Being Black in America, Shawn Rochester shows how "The Black Tax" (which is the financial cost of conscious and unconscious anti-black discrimination), creates a massive financial burden on Black American households that dramatically reduces their ability to leave a substantial legacy for future generations. Mr. Rochester lays out an extraordinarily compelling case which documents the enormous financial cost of current and past anti-black discrimination on African American households.

The Black Tax, provides the fact pattern, data and evidence to substantiate what African Americans have long experienced and tried to convey to an unbelieving American public. Backed by an exceptional amount of research, Mr. Rochester not only highlights the extraordinary cost of the discrimination that African Americans currently face, but also explores the massive cost of past discrimination to explain why after 400 years Black Americans own only about 2% of American wealth. He then establishes a framework that Black Americans and other concerned parties can use to eliminate this tax and help create the 6 million jobs and 1.4 million businesses that are missing from the Black community.

©2017 Shawn D. Rochester (P)2020 Shawn D. Rochester

Good Book

Great book. It really clarifies what racism is. it's an economic system that drives wealth and power towards and away from particular groups. you can't fix racism without a proactive effort to undo what was done.

I love this Book!

I really enjoyed this audiobook. It highlights so many atrocities that need to be addressed for the Descendants of American Slaves.

Very Enlightening

Reveals a lot of the costs that people don't typically consider. Would be very informative for all who are willing to accept the information.

A unfitting .book an eye-opener

Great Book leader follower should study this book. every business person should read this book..

Very Insightful

This was very insightful, the history shared is relative to what’s going on now. And to put that in one book to show our disadvantage in society was genius. Another great book by Shawn Rochester!

Eye Opening Read

Required Reading 📚


When People Ask What Part They Can Play to Assist in the Years of the Disenfranchised People of (So Called) Color... This Book Would Be an Amazing Start..

Great Information

The author does an excellent job explaining the financial implications of racism and prejudice imposed on all citizens of the United States, especially Black people.

Love the detail

Great explanations and hardcore details provided to show the deleterious effects of discrimination over time, really thought provoking.

Powerful Statistical & Historic Truth on Black Economic State in America

Excellent comprehensive analysis on the economic state Afro Americans in the United States. As an Afro American male, late 30s, I have mostly seen a large wealth gap (my family included) between blacks and whites and have always wondered to myself, why this is the case. Mr. Rochester provides the analytical and statistical evidence proving the plight of the Afro American is the direct result of systemic and intentional explicit and implicit anti-black bias, leading to The Black Tax designed to financially and politically disempower blacks from having any real wealth nor power.

To think that the collective black person’s defeated position has been controlled and undermined simply because of the pigmentation of one’s skin is a depressing ‘nightmare reality’ for more than half of millennium. (Slavery goes beyond 400 years, hint Papal Bulls)

Despite these historical and statistical facts, I strongly believe we can overcome these challenges with a concentrated effort towards wealth accumulation guided by Mr. Rochester’s solutions. We have to be intentional and focused, because the agenda is real to keep blacks down below the 2% market share in every single wealth accumulation category. (There are news articles circulated with the past 5 years suggesting that Blacks will have zero to negative net worth by the year 2053)

You need to know this stuff!

The financial impact has major implications and must not be ignored. Read or listen for yourself and apply in small steps, but we can certainly recoup some of what was stolen/lost/denied. It’s possible!