Summary of Dorothy A. Brown's The Whiteness of Wealth

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Dorothy A. Brown's The Whiteness of Wealth in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: In The Whiteness of Wealth, Brown draws on decades of cross-disciplinary research to show that tax law isn’t as color-blind as she’d once believed. She 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 to their white peers. The results are an ever-increasing wealth gap and more black families shut out of the American dream.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Dec 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781669343226

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Insights on Dorothy A. Brown's The Whiteness of Wealth

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

When the author’s parents got married in 1956, they didn’t have money for a fancy wedding or a honeymoon, so they moved into the spare room in his grandmother’s apartment and stayed there after they had children. Their financial situation didn’t improve much until they were able to move out and buy a house in the 1970s.

#2

Wealthy Americans in the early 1900s found a way to get around the tax laws by allocating their income to their spouses, who would then report half of that income as their own.

#3

In the early 20th century, the top tax bracket in the United States was 77 percent, and the richest Americans were paying that much in taxes. This outraged the wealthy, and they began lobbying states to pass laws changing their state’s property laws to community property, which would allow them to avoid that