How the tax system impoverishes Black Americans (with Dorothy A. Brown)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 9 November 2021

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We know that the tax system is set up to advantage people with money. And we know that in the U.S., people with money are disproportionately white. But what many people don’t realize is that the tax system actively advantages white families. Tax law professor Dorothy Brown explains how racial inequality is baked into tax policy in non-obvious ways, and how that affects wealth-building. Dorothy A. Brown is professor of law at Emory University School of Law. She is a nationally recognized scholar in tax policy, race, and class and has published extensively on the racial implications of federal tax policy. She is the author of The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans — And How We Can Fix It. Twitter: @DorothyABrown The Whiteness of Wealth: https://bookshop.org/books/the-whiteness-of-wealth-how-the-tax-system-impoverishes-black-americans-and-how-we-can-fix-it/9780525577324 Black families pay significantly higher property taxes than white families, new analysis shows: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/02/black-property-tax/ Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com/ Twitter: @PitchforkEcon Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

Transcript

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0:00.0	If there's one thing we've talked a lot about over the years, it has been the ways in
0:04.8	which the economy is set up to advantage people with more money.
0:09.7	In no place is that more obvious than in the tax code.
0:12.9	Basically, when black and white Americans engage in the same activity, whether it's getting
0:17.3	married, whether it's buying a home, or trying to build wealth, our tax system advantages
0:23.3	how white Americans engage in the activity.
0:26.7	And at the same time, disadvantage how black Americans engage in that activity.
0:36.9	From the home offices of civic ventures in downtown Seattle, this is pitchfork economics,
0:41.9	with Nick Hanauer, the best place to get the truth about who gets what and why.
0:53.0	I'm Nick Hanauer, founder of Civic Ventures.
0:56.1	I'm David Goldstein, senior fellow at Civic Ventures.
1:03.7	So Goldie, if there's one thing we've talked a lot about on the podcast over the years,
1:09.1	it has been the ways in which the economy is set up to advantage people with more money.
1:17.0	And the way in which it, you know, we preference capital over work and so on and so forth.
1:22.7	And in no place is that more obvious than in the tax code, right?
1:27.6	And we've talked about it a lot, how if you're rich and have a ton of income, your rates
1:32.4	are literally lower than if you were a middle class and, you know, have a job.
1:37.6	I mean, like, like me, yes, like you, specifically like you, what, you know, I think you and I
1:43.4	have not understood as clearly as the ways in which that system disproportionately disadvantages
1:50.3	black families.
1:52.1	And so today, it'll be super interesting to talk to Dorothy Brown, a tax professor at
1:57.9	Emory Law, who researches systemic racism in tax policy.
	...

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