Nonprofit Quarterly, February 22, 2021, Closing the Racial Wealth Gap and the Case for Reparations
The latest webinar in NPQ’s Remaking the Economy series looks at the racial wealth gap, focusing on Black Americans. In 2017, a report titled The Road to Zero Wealth noted that at current trends, by mid-century the median wealth of a Black family in the US would fall below zero (i.e., more than half of all Black Americans would be in a net debtor position).
As the movement against anti-Black racism has gained support, so too has the movement for reparations. Reparations would provide formal acknowledgement of the tremendous costs, economic and otherwise, of slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, and other racist policies. But how would the mechanics of reparations work, and what does repair require?
- Dedrick Asante-Muhammad is Chief of Race, Wealth, and Community for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, an economic justice nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington, DC and was a coauthor of the 2017 Road to Zero Wealth
