PODCAST EPISODES

Let’s talk about centering the needs of Black women. In this episode, I am pleased to speak with Anne Price, the first woman president of the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, about narrowing gendered racial wealth inequities. Spoiler alert: One way forward is to center Blackness. Anne’s tireless work has elevated the voices and opinions of experts of color in national economic debates and brought the issue of the racial wealth gap into mainstream consciousness. Anne breaks down various myths about the wealth gap and encourages us to reevaluate our thinking. We discuss Anne’s recent report, Don’t Fixate On the Racial Wealth Gap: Focus on Undoing Its Root Causes.

Topics Covered: 

• Defining wealth, the racial wealth gap, and the women’s wealth gap
• How race and gender intersect to create gendered racial wealth inequities
• Wealth and Black female entrepreneurship
• Deconstructing narratives of wealth and personal responsibility 
• Addressing the root causes of racial wealth inequities 
• Historical and structural barriers to wealth for the Black community
• Proposals for narrowing gendered racial wealth inequalities
• Centering blackness to achieve economic liberation

Highlights:

• “Wealth begets wealth. Wealth builds on itself.”
• “We have to understand why we are so deeply wedded to the narrative of entrepreneurship when it comes to wealth. It’s a deeply-seated narrative. If you think about a gap that is so extensive, a business alone is not going to eradicate that gap.”
• “We get caught up in this idea of a deficiency. It’s a narrative that we hold as Black people because it’s a dominant narrative and we believe it ourselves. And that really does stymie our ability to find the right solutions.”
• “Anti-blackness actually hurts everyone.”
• “Just hearing the word blackness can send people on their heels. Why is it such a problem to focus on Black people?”

Connect with Anne: 

On the Insight Center’s website: www.insightcced.org

On Twitter: @annepriceICCED

Other References: 

• Jhumpa Bhattacharya, Anne Price, and Fenaba R. Addo, Ph.D, Clipped Wings: Closing the Wealth Gap for Millennial Women
• Janelle Jones and John Shmitt, A College Degree Is No Guarantee
• William Darity, Jr., Darrick Hamilton, Mark Paul, Alan Aja, Anne Price, Antonio Moore, and Caterina Chiopris, What We Get Wrong about Closing the Racial Wealth Gap
• Kerry Hannon, Black Women Entrepreneurs: The Good and Not-So-Good News
• Jhumpa Bhattacharya and Anne Price, The Power of Narrative in Economic Policy

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it! Leave a review and rating on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, or Spotify. Reviews and ratings are really important to the ranking of the show. And feel free to send feedback and questions to breakconcrete@gmail.com.