The story of the growing inequality in the United States has many dimensions.
There is the overarching story of the last four decades of polarizing income, wealth, and opportunity. But the many ways these inequalities manifest depend on people’s gender, race, age, immigration status, and other experience.
One piece of the story is to understand how 40 years of public policies have worsened the racial wealth divide and enriched the top 1 percent.
Wealth is where the past shows up in the present, both in terms of historical advantages and barriers. Measures of wealth—what you own minus what you owe—reflect the multigenerational story of White supremacy in asset-building.
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