Tax policy silently shapes each racial difference in the college experience

Evidence

There are four key ways black and white Americans experience college differently: which institutions they attend; how they pay for them; whether they graduate; and how much debt they have afterward. Each of these, often invisibly, is shaped by a piece of tax policy that almost always advantages the white American college experience. From the tax exemption for nonprofit institutions, which perpetuates the wealth and success of highly selective, predominantly white private colleges, to the deduction for student loan interest, which offers very limited benefit to those who self-finance their education, most tax policies offer greater rewards to white students and fewer benefits for black students. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 259

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names the chapter’s analytical frame in one place: four visible racial disparities, each invisibly driven by a tax provision.