The Color of Money

Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap

By: Mehrsa Baradaran

Narrated by: Lisa Reneé Pitts

When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the black community owned less than one percent of the United States' total wealth. More than 150 years later, that number has barely budged. The Color of Money pursues the persistence of this racial wealth gap by focusing on the generators of wealth in the black community: black banks.

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. Not only could black banks not "control the black dollar" due to the dynamics of bank depositing and lending but they drained black capital into white banks, leaving the black economy with the scraps.

Mehrsa Baradaran challenges the long-standing notion that black banking and community self-help is the solution to the racial wealth gap. These initiatives have functioned as a potent political decoy to avoid more fundamental reforms and racial redress. Examining the fruits of past policies and the operation of banking in a segregated economy, she makes clear that only bolder, more realistic views of banking's relation to black communities will end the cycle of poverty and promote black wealth.

©2017 The President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Baradaran's brilliant and devastating analysis leads to an irrefutable conclusion: the racial wealth gap is the product of state law and public policy, and will only be reversed when the same governmental tools that created segregation and discrimination are deployed to end it." (Beryl Satter, author of Family Properties)

America's Dark Economic History

This book portrays racial tribalism, economic deprivation, and systemic historical data that illustrates the exclusion and hatred of minority citizens. The provides an account of Black owned banks that have suffered from the lack of financial assistance from the Federal and state government to keep the banks sustainable for African American communities. They were several harsh truths as to why having black owned banks, buying black, etc. doesn't work under a racial capitalistic nation without economic policy changes. The research was well written to the point that it is worth reading more than once.

Amazing read!

I highly recommend this book for others. Definitely one of my top 5 books read on audible.

This book is very informative

Color of Money should be read by every American especially black America. It opens the eyes of us who need to better understand our current economy.

so very informative

knew some of this stuff not nearly as much as I just learned reading it

Great book

This was a great book. It was very informative and motivating. Support the Black businesses, especially the banks to help those that help us.

A solid and informative read

I find this book to be an important read. If we’re to work towards a better, more equitable future - this book certainly highlights the continued thinking that got us here and showcases it so that we can avoid them. It highlights the systemic nature of racism and how economic headwinds reinforce it. One example of this is the authors reading of the One United Bank and the Charles Street Episcopal Church (both black institutions) debacle. That example highlights her points about systems and how black institutions are unfairly constrained by them. This isn’t necessarily a light read, but it’s easy to understand and important. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Great read!

So informative. Really puts a lot of things in true perspective. It’s a harsh reality for us as African American but I think everyone of this culture should read this book to get an understanding on why things are they way there are today. We all hear the different stories throughout the years but this book really breaks it down piece by piece in layman’s terms for anyone to understand. Knowledge is true freedom. Wisdom is power.

Insight after insight

The book contained so many insights that I found myself taking notes throughout. It does, however, focus too much on a general overview of race in America when a more detailed economic history of black America and of the history of banking regulation was needed. Still, the information it provides on both of these topics is so valuable given how few scholars cover either.

Must have information

"You don't know what you don't know". There is information that one must have to be successful in this world. This is a book about money, but information is the "man behind the curtain". You need to see how others see you and this book gives you gives that to you.

An education on banking.

A must read for anyone wanting to understand the current state of Black America.