EPI hosted a book talk with Mehrsa Baradaran, professor of law at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law. Baradaran presented and discussed her new book, The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap.

Baradaran challenges the long-standing notion that black banking and community self-help is the solution to the racial wealth gap. These initiatives have functioned as a potent political decoy to avoid more fundamental reforms and racial redress. Examining the fruits of past policies and the operation of banking in a segregated economy, she makes clear that only bolder, more realistic views of banking’s relation to black communities will end the cycle of poverty and promote black wealth.

Valerie Wilson, director of EPI’s Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy (PREE), introduced the author and led a Q&A session, before opening up the discussion to the audience.

What: Book talk on The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap

Who: Mehrsa Baradaran, author, The Color of Money
Valerie Wilson, director of PREE, Economic Policy Institute

When: Friday, July 26
12:00 noon–1:30 p.m. Eastern

Where: Economic Policy Institute
1225 Eye St. NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20005