The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans and How We Can Fix It

Join us for a presentation of Dorothy A. Brown’s latest book, “The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans — and How We Can Fix It,” which draws on decades of cross-disciplinary research to show that tax law isn’t as color-blind as she’d once believed. Dr. Brown takes us into her adopted city of Atlanta, introducing us to families across the economic spectrum whose stories demonstrate how American tax law rewards the preferences and practices of white people while pushing Black people further behind. From attending college to getting married to buying a home, Black Americans find themselves at a financial disadvantage compared with their white peers. The results are an ever-increasing wealth gap and more black families shut out of the American dream.

Dorothy A. Brown is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law at Emory University Law School, where she teaches courses on Tax, Critical Race Theory, and Legislation and Regulation. She is a nationally recognized scholar in the areas of race, class, and tax policy and the author of numerous law review articles, book chapters, and essays on the topic. She majored in accounting at Fordham University, received her law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center, and her LLM in Taxation from New York University. She has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and NPR and her opinion pieces have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Forbes, and CNN Opinion.

This lecture was established to honor Phillip J. Bowman’s contributions to UIC during his tenure as director of IRRPP and professor of African American studies. It features national scholars of race, ethnicity, and public policy who provide timely analysis of issues of critical importance to the field and to communities of color.

Register for the Bowman Lecture.