by Thomas M. Shapiro
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Product Description
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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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Hard Truth, 2008-10-10
These book discuses some hard fact about the financial challenges in being African American. The problem is in stating the condition and show the unfair elements of it does not bring about change. There is a need for African American to realize the conditions are what they are and only they can change the outcome.
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
 wrongheaded analysis, 2008-02-19
This book is basically a collection of statistical data which indicates that in terms of accumulated wealth, African-Americans are not only lagging behind Whites, but the wealth gap seems to be wider than ever.
He also uses anecdotes and interviews to show that this lack of wealth puts African-Americans at a disadvantage in acquiring the good things in life - growing home equity, education, in other words a better life. However, this seems to be tautological, to have wealth is to act wealthy.
The worst defectin this book is his seemingly lack of knowledge of economics - there is hardly any mention of what PRODUCES wealth in society. You get the impression reading this that wealth is something that just seems to accumulate for the people who have it. His remedy is simply to redistribute this wealth through taxation and government programs. True, discrimination has been a drag on African American progress, but it cannot be the total answer. Wealth has to be produced, and it has been in our past. There is a rich history of African-American men and women who have created businesses and become wealthy, in spite of hardships. In the 1920's, more African Americans had access to health care than they do now. The reason is two-fold. Government policies of credit expansion have helped the more wealthier investor class, while the resulting inflation causes wages to stagnate and thus increase the wealth gap, not ony between Black and White, but between all rich and poor. Governmental regulations and taxes on businesses produce less capital investment, which historically has been the only avenue for increasing the productivity of labor. One can read of many instances where start up black businesses ranging from jitney services to hair weaving businesses have been hampered by local licencing regulations and franchise laws.
If Shapiro's recomendations were implemented, we would see a rising gap in wealth, not a narrowing one. This is not a very usefull book.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Shapiro Hurts His Own Cause, 2007-12-19
Shapiro begins his book by saying that he has "taken creative liscence with identities and demographics, even constructing a composite or two." Why not let the truth speak for itself?
This book should begin, in big bold letters, with the following phrase "GET OUT AND VOTE, BLACK PEOPLE!"
The fact is, African Americans, for the most part, don't vote. As a result, politicians currently have very little incentive to court African American voters. Somehow, this minor detail slipped Shapiro's mind.
Not a lot of credibility here.
Moreoever, Shapiro grew up a middle-class white Jew. Normally this wouldn't matter, but when discussing poor black communities, I'd like to hear it from the source. I know Shapiro is well regarded, but I had a hard time with this book. His convictions have as many loopholes as the tax policies he condemns.
I recommend finding a better book on Race/Economics.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 Every American needs to read this book!, 2007-03-10
I agree with Mr. Shapiro. He took my understanding of how tax policy and wealth transfers have widened the gap to a new level. His arguments are highly persuasive. However, I have an alternative view of why the value of homes in AA communities do not appreciate as fast. There is validity to his view but I believe another reason is because of the way AA's maintain their communities and not because they are segregated. I grew-up in an all black neighborhood but my father cut our grass; we didn't have broken down cars in the drive way, or couches on the front porch. Everyone worked together and we were proud of our homes. The way I see it, I don't care if the neighborhood is black, white, hispanic, or asian, if the people do not keep that community clean and well-maintained, the property values will stagnate or decline, inevitably. So let's not go too far to one side and say that "Because neighborhoods are racially segregated, African Americans' homes do not grow in value as fast as whites' homes do." There are other factors at play as well.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Wealth: The Bedrock of Racial Inequality, 2006-12-08
The typical minority household in the United States now owns less than one-tenth the wealth of a typical white household. Even worse, this gap is actually growing, an increase that's confounding America's mainstream public policy analysts.
These analysts treat racial inequality as purely a function of unequal access to jobs, skills, and education. The more access, the less inequality.
That certainly sounds reasonable. But if this analysis were correct, then racial inequalities ought to be narrowing, since Americans of color today have far more access to jobs, skills, and education than they did just a generation ago.
So why is racial inequality, as measured by net worth, expanding? Thomas Shapiro has an answer in his insightful new Hidden Cost of Being African American. Racial inequalities are widening, he argues, because Americans continue to ignore our nation's incredibly unequal distribution of wealth.
That maldistribution, Shapiro contends, has essentially trumped the expanded access to jobs, skills, and education won through years of civil rights struggles.
Consider two young people. Both study hard in high school. Both go on to attend college. One has parents with enough wealth to foot the bill for college tuition. The other graduates with thousands of dollars in student loan debt.
These two young people get hired by the same company. Both make the same income, and both look to buy their first home at the same time. But only one has parents who can help with the downpayment. The other, still burdened with student debts, gets dirty looks from lenders -- and ends up with a mortgage at a higher monthly rate.
Our lucky young person, buoyed by abundant parental help, can afford to buy a home in a nice neighborhood with good schools. Our unlucky young person can only afford a home in a considerably less desirable neighborhood.
Fifteen years later, the home in the nice neighborhood has appreciated nicely. The other home has not. Our two now-no-longer-young people still make the same income. But they are not equally wealthy. Only one lives in financial security. One is white, the other black.
How can we begin to turn this dynamic around? Shapiro sees "no means of seriously moving toward racial equality without positive asset policies to address the racial wealth gap." And Shapiro also emphasizes the importance of leveling down privilege at the top of America's economic ladder.
"What is really at stake," he writes, "is the power of very wealthy individuals to assure succeeding generations economic success and material comfort through unearned advantages, regardless of any achievements or contributions they may make."
[Excerpted from a review that appeared in Too Much, the online weekly newsletter.]
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