The New Yorker Radio Hour podcast recently featured an interview with Dorothy Brown, tax researcher and Emory University Law School professor, that suggests that the Internal Revenue Code is structured to disadvantage African heritage taxpayers while benefiting white American taxpayers. Professor Brown suggests that this is just one more systemic process--whether intentional or unintentional--that feeds the ever-widening wealth gap between white Americans and African heritage Americans.
The 14-minute interview (The Hidden Racism of Taxes) is depressing but may be an interesting conversation starter for Social Justice. If nothing else, the interview (and Brown's book on the subject, The Whiteness of Wealth) gives us lots to think about.
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