“A deep accounting of how America got to a point where a median white family has 13 times more wealth than the median black family.” ―The Atlantic
“Extraordinary… Baradaran focuses on a part of the American story that’s often ignored: the way African Americans were locked out of the financial engines that create wealth in America.” ―Ezra Klein
When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the black community owned less than 1 percent of the total wealth in America. More than 150 years later, that number has barely budged. The Color of Money seeks to explain the stubborn persistence of this racial wealth gap by focusing on the generators of wealth in the black community: black banks.
With the civil rights movement in full swing, President Nixon promoted “black capitalism,” a plan to support black banks and minority-owned businesses. But the catch-22 of black banking is that the very institutions needed to help communities escape the deep poverty caused by discrimination and segregation inevitably became victims of that same poverty. In this timely and eye-opening account, Baradaran challenges the long-standing belief that black communities could ever really hope to accumulate wealth in a segregated economy.
“Black capitalism has not improved the economic lives of black people, and Baradaran deftly explains the reasons why.” ―Los Angeles Review of Books
“A must read for anyone interested in closing America’s racial wealth gap.” ―Black Perspectives

The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap

Business & Money

Baradaran, Mehrsa

Economics

Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press

The United States has two separate banking systems today―one serving the well-to-do and another exploiting everyone else. How the Other Half Banks contributes to the growing conversation on American inequality by highlighting one of its prime causes: unequal credit. Mehrsa Baradaran examines how a significant portion of the population, deserted by banks, is forced to wander through a Wild West of payday lenders and check-cashing services to cover emergency expenses and pay for necessities―all thanks to deregulation that began in the 1970s and continues decades later.
In an age of corporate megabanks with trillions of dollars in assets, it is easy to forget that America’s banking system was originally created as a public service. Banks have always relied on credit from the federal government, provided on favorable terms so that they could issue low-interest loans. But as banks grew in size and political influence, they shed their social contract with the American people, demanding to be treated as a private industry free from any public-serving responsibility. They abandoned less profitable, low-income customers in favor of wealthier clients and high-yield investments. Fringe lenders stepped in to fill the void. This two-tier banking system has become even more unequal since the 2008 financial crisis.
Baradaran proposes a solution: reenlisting the U.S. Post Office in its historic function of providing bank services. The post office played an important but largely forgotten role in the creation of American democracy, and it could be deployed again to level the field of financial opportunity.

How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy

Harvard University Press

When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the black community owned less than one percent of the United States’ total wealth. More than 150 years later, that number has barely budged. The Color of Money pursues the persistence of this racial wealth gap by focusing on the generators of wealth in the black community: black banks. Studying these institutions over time, Mehrsa Baradaran challenges the myth that black communities could ever accumulate wealth in a segregated economy. Instead, housing segregation, racism, and Jim Crow credit policies created an inescapable, but hard to detect, economic trap for black communities and their banks.
The catch-22 of black banking is that the very institutions needed to help communities escape the deep poverty caused by discrimination and segregation inevitably became victims of that same poverty. Not only could black banks not “control the black dollar” due to the dynamics of bank depositing and lending but they drained black capital into white banks, leaving the black economy with the scraps.
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.

The United States has two separate banking systems today―one serving the well-to-do and another exploiting everyone else. How the Other Half Banks contributes to the growing conversation on American inequality by highlighting one of its prime causes: unequal credit. Mehrsa Baradaran examines how a significant portion of the population, deserted by banks, is forced to wander through a Wild West of payday lenders and check-cashing services to cover emergency expenses and pay for necessities―all thanks to deregulation that began in the 1970s and continues decades later.
“Baradaran argues persuasively that the banking industry, fattened on public subsidies (including too-big-to-fail bailouts), owes low-income families a better deal…How the Other Half Banks is well researched and clearly written…The bankers who fully understand the system are heavily invested in it. Books like this are written for the rest of us.” ―Nancy Folbre, New York Times Book Review
“How the Other Half Banks tells an important story, one in which we have allowed the profit motives of banks to trump the public interest.” ―Lisa J. Servon, American Prospect

Many Americans believe that something fundamental has gone wrong in our country. Why does full-time work no longer guarantee financial stability? Why does college cost a lifetime of debt? And why have decades of free-market promises yielded not more freedom and liberty but more debt and constraints? In The Quiet Coup, Mehrsa Baradaran, one of our premier public intellectuals, argues that our problems stem from the market-centered doctrine of neoliberalism. Far more than a mere economic theory, neoliberalism and its adherents transformed American law--yielding not fewer laws, but more-complex laws and regulations that benefit the wealthy. From neoliberalism's role as a tool of ideological warfare against racial justice movements in the 1960s to its complete institutional takeover in the 1980s to the crypto meltdowns of the 2020s, Baradaran's essential chronicle shows that the neoliberal era--and legalized mass looting--is far from over, and in fact is only accelerating.

The Quiet Coup: Neoliberalism and the Looting of America

W.W.Norton&Company

When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the black community owned less than one percent of the United States' total wealth. More than 150 years later, that number has barely budged. The Color of Money pursues the persistence of this racial wealth gap by focusing on the generators of wealth in the black community: black banks.The catch-22 of black banking is that the very institutions needed to help communities escape the deep poverty caused by discrimination and segregation inevitably became victims of that same poverty. Not only could black banks not �control the black dollar� due to the dynamics of bank depositing and lending but they drained black capital into white banks, leaving the black economy with the scraps.Mehrsa 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.

Tantor Audio

"Banks aren't buildings full of gold but are currents where digital money flows."\n"Money is a current-a wave of potential, hope, and energy. Money is an idea we all agree on. Money is valuable because we all believe it has value."\nWhen you think of a bank, what comes to mind? A building? A safe? A locked box full of gold? What if we told you banks weren't any of these things? And (get ready for this)...most money isn't even kept in the bank! Banking is a system that allows money to move from one place to another, creating opportunities and growth. And banks only work well with trust, community, and a shared belief in the magic of money.

A Kids Book About Banking

Children's Books

Education & Reference

Kids Book About, Inc

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Baradaran, Mehrsa. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Baradaran, Mehrsa

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Baradaran, Mehrsa. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap

How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy

The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap

How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy

The Quiet Coup: Neoliberalism and the Looting of America

The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap

A Kids Book About Banking