Black married couples trail white peers due to tax policy decisions made long ago

Evidence

Because of tax policy decisions made long ago, black married couples start off behind their white peers. When they purchase homes, they do not receive the home equity boost that their white peers get. Black Americans have more student loan debt to pay off. They work in lower-paying jobs than their qualifications would suggest, and they support extended family in ways foreign to most of their white peers. From one generation to the next, black wealth diminishes, evaporates, and is stolen by systemic racism. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 73

Categorization

• DEFINE: The passage roots ‘systemic racism’ in concrete, specific mechanisms rather than vague prejudice — laying stakes for the whole book.