The Whiteness of Wealth

How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans - and How We Can Fix It

By: Dorothy A. Brown

Narrated by: Karen Murray

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, number one New York Times best-selling 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.

©2021 Dorothy A. Brown (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“In The Whiteness of Wealth, Brown brings the American tax code to life. Hands shape it and wield it like a shield in the defense of the most powerful among us. The tax code tells a story about American priorities. The news isn’t good, Brown writes, but there’s still time to change the future.” (New York)

“[An] accessible and lively...primer on how wealth works in America.” (Bloomberg Businessweek)

“This book is a tour de force. With clarity and conviction, Dorothy Brown reveals how US tax policy sustains and deepens the wealth gap between black and white Americans. As I read The Whiteness of Wealth, I found myself shaking my head as I eagerly turned the pages and shouting ‘damn’ with each revelation. If we are finally to address the long history of racism in this country, we must grapple with the arguments of Brown’s powerful book. This is a must read for these troubling times.” (Eddie S. Glaude Jr., New York Times best-selling author of Begin Again and Democracy in Black)

Tremendous facts hidden in plain sight.

Very sober explanation of the lasting financial consequences of past errors. I'm hopeful many will take the suggestions made to make a more equitable future for us all. We can only do this together.

Incredible and heartbreaking

So much resonated with my experience and not knowing how to navigate certain things without recognizing it as an inequity. Opened my eyes to another level.

Knowledge is Power

Wow, I'm speechless. Dorothy unveils another invisibilized pillar that upholds systemic racism and the status quo. You won't be able to un-see it.

Concrete examples of systemic racism

Systemic racism is everywhere; however, this helped shine a light on many concrete examples that don’t make the headlines. The far-reaching implications for generations of BIPOC but specifically African-Americans ultimately affect all of us and the sooner we can change the system, the better. I feel better equipped to advocate for reforms. Thank you, Professor Brown!

Excellent, Informative. Engaging and Factual!

The author reading her book was fantastic. This is a "must read", for Black People in particular and all others, in general, who want to understand the differences between income and wealth and how systemic racism affects both.
READ OR LISTEN TO IT "TWICE"!

Read this literature! Data backed.

Data backed.
Eye opening.
Reveals information not touched on substantially.
Will provide profound understanding and hopefully drive readers to teach others and be active in pushing for real and needed changes.

MUST READ; MUST LISTEN; MUST LEARN

This was a very important book to read. The information was completely relevant and answered many questions middle class folk like myself have struggled to have answered.

Excellent, Eye Opening Info Must Read & Pass on!

This is an important Book! Such a good read, Info people need to Know! She lays out how the tax system has impacted the inability of Blacks particularly, but also Latinos, poor & middle class people in general to get ahead. and accumulate wealth.. Its not our fault, we know we have been working so hard, this tells why we don't get ahead. Thank you Dorthy Brown. She also in her detailed analyses offers solutions so I hope policy makers will take the time to read this book.

EXCELLENT MUST READ FOR ALL

Loved being enlightened by this book. I feel empowered to advocate for a refundable tax credit for less wealthy individuals and families, thereby providing a mechanism to begin to erase the ethnic and racial wealth divides.

Excellently researched and narrated.

This book is a well researched and sobering contemporary analysis of how inequality is still baked into the laws of the United States and how those laws, specifically, the tax code overwhelming favors white people when it comes to creating and passing on wealth.