Johnson, Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy “A stimulating walk-through of the history of the expansion of the wealth gap between black and white Americans that has grown even larger since the Emancipation Proclamation freed blacks from slavery. “Baradaran has produced an important, sobering assessment of historic and contemporary African American banks… provides an overview of American and African American economic history from the era of slavery to the present. “Extraordinary… Baradaran focuses on a part of the American story that’s often ignored: the way African Americans were locked out of the financial engines that create wealth in America, and the way the rhetoric of equal treatment under the law was weaponized, as soon as slavery ended, against efforts to achieve economic equality. “Baradaran’s point is to show how white and Black Americans effectively live in two separate economies… As a work of history, the book contains a disturbingly coherent narrative of racist plunder spanning from the Freedman’s Bureau bank to today’s payday lenders… Baradaran’s book is a must read for anyone interested in closing America’s racial wealth gap. “Anyone who manages money, invests in others’ livelihoods or lives in America should read The Color of Money… The book digs into financial institutions and policies that are responsible for creating and maintaining racial inequalities in the United States… The book breaks down the stereotypes of self-help dogma that tout ‘save more, don’t spend so much or pull yourself up’ and rejects the idea that those who are not wealthy just need more financial literacy or mentorship. ” -Armond Towns and Carolyn Hardin, The Los Angeles Review of Books Baradaran’s lesson is that a separate system of black capitalism would intensify, rather than ameliorate, this dynamic along the lines of race. “Black capitalism has not improved the economic lives of black people, and Baradaran deftly explains the reasons why… Banking today already offers low interest loans and free services to the wealthy, while reserving payday lending and check cashing for those with the least resources.

“Baradaran…provides a deep accounting of how America got to a point where a median white family has 13 times more wealth than the median black family. “Lays out how, over centuries, policymakers wrote Black Americans out of the economic system… Baradaran’s work resonates now as millions protest around the U.S.-speaking out not only against police brutality against Black Americans, but the systemic racism that pervades America’s institutions.

The color of money baradaran