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ADVANCE PRAISE FOR

THE COLOR OF WEALTH:
THE STORY BEHIND THE U.S. RACIAL WEALTH DIVIDE

By Meizhu Lui, Bárbara Robles, Betsy Leondar-Wright, Rose Brewer, and Rebecca Adamson (The New Press, June 2006)

“Never mind the income gap.  Measuring and explaining the wealth gap gets to the foundation of the power differences that exist in the United Sates.  The Color of Wealth is a powerful contribution because it shows the way that contemporary wealth differences evolve from pivotal points in our history, and explains how public policy, even when well meaning, reinforces existing inequality.  This book is an important contribution to critical work on race and economics.”

- Julianne Malveaux, economist and author of Wall Street, Main Street and the Side Street: A Mad Economist Takes a Stroll

“The Color of Wealth urgently confronts how race and class are entwined in the United States.  Guided by a compelling vision of greater equality, this fine book combines clarity with learning both to instruct and to imagine a better future.”

- Ira Katznelson, Professor at Columbia University and author of When Affirmative Action Was White

 “All our forebears—regardless of their points of origin—engaged in vigorous bootstrap tugging, but with widely divergent results. This important book debunks wealth creation mythology. Read it! “

- Bill Fletcher Jr., president, TransAfrica Forum

"This is an indispensable book that contributes to placing closing the racial wealth gap at the forefront of the civil rights agenda for the 21st Century. Thoroughly researched and written in an accessible style, The Color of Wealth is a comprehensive guide to understanding America’s great wealth divide that can re-frame our national conversation on opportunity and inequality.  The racial wealth gap is the enemy of opportunity and meritocracy…and perhaps democracy as well.”

- Thomas M. Shapiro, professor at Brandeis University and co-author of Black Wealth / white Wealth and The Hidden Disadvantages of Being African American

 “The Color of Wealth is a well researched, clearly written, and hard hitting explanation of how and why there are still major barriers to equal opportunity for people of color in America. The book bolsters the argument that race and ethnicity continue to define the haves and the have-nots in our society. The historical chapters are especially useful.”

- Martin Carnoy, professor at Stanford University and author of Faded Dreams: The Politics and Economics of Race in America

 “The Color of Wealth elaborates the crucial point that wealth, not income, is the most revealing category for understanding racial inequality. It also shows that U.S. government policies have been central to the making of that inequality.”

- Bob Wing, founding editor of ColorLines