Naming intergenerational luck undermines belief that wealth comes from merit alone

Evidence

I hope this book will teach white Americans how to look for luck in their stories and talk about it when they find it—even something as seemingly small as a low-interest loan from a family member. I hope it will help to stop them from thinking that our system is a meritocracy and they’ve earned everything they have through hard work alone. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 541

Categorization

• SEED: Revealing how whites ‘look for luck in their stories’ is an essay angle on the concealment that hides structural advantage behind merit narratives.
• XREF: connects to: Inherited wealth is presented by microcelebrities as earned merit. — Alice E. Marwick, Instafame: Luxury Selfies in the…, 67