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The Hidden Cost of Being African American
Thomas M. Shapiro
How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality
Oxford University Press
February 2005
On Sale: January 27, 2005
256 pages
ISBN: 0195181387
EAN: 9780195181388
Paperback
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Non-Fiction
Over the past three decades, racial prejudice in America has
declined significantly and many African American families
have seen a steady rise in employment and annual income. But
alongside these encouraging signs, Thomas Shapiro argues in
The Hidden Cost of Being African American, fundamental
levels of racial inequality persist, particularly in the
area of asset accumulation--inheritance, savings accounts,
stocks, bonds, home equity, and other investments-. Shapiro
reveals how the lack of these family assets along with
continuing racial discrimination in crucial areas like
homeownership dramatically impact the everyday lives of many
black families, reversing gains earned in schools and on
jobs, and perpetuating the cycle of poverty in which far too
many find themselves trapped. Shapiro uses a combination of
in-depth interviews with almost 200 families from Los
Angeles, Boston, and St. Louis, and national survey data
with 10,000 families to show how racial inequality is
transmitted across generations. We see how those families
with private wealth are able to move up from generation to
generation, relocating to safer communities with better
schools and passing along the accompanying advantages to
their children. At the same time those without significant
wealth remain trapped in communities that don't allow them
to move up, no matter how hard they work. Shapiro challenges
white middle class families to consider how the privileges
that wealth brings not only improve their own chances but
also hold back people who don't have them. This "wealthfare"
is a legacy of inequality that, if unchanged, will project
social injustice far into the future. Showing that over half
of black families fall below the asset poverty line at the
beginning of the new century, The Hidden Cost of Being
African American will challenge all Americans to reconsider
what must be done to end racial inequality.
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