"Race and Wealth" is one of six thematic pillars of the initiative Our Shared Future: Reckoning with our Racial Past. These pillars can help us understand the past to build a better future. They are designed to make systemic racism feel identifiable, feel relevant, to our lives, and, most importantly, feel changeable.
The racial wealth gap has knowable historical foundations. Rooted in almost 400 years of slavery, dispossession and ongoing prejudice, the reality of economic inequality is rooted in our everyday lives, from inheritances to housing to debates about reparations. This pillar addresses the origins, persistence, and growth of racial economic disparity.