Published in May 2017

Video: Black Wealth/White Wealth: Hidden Costs of Being Black

Race Today: A Symposium on Race in America" brought a group of the nation’s most respected intellectuals on race, racial theory and racial inequality together to consider the troubling state of black life in America today.

What are the broader structural factors that shape race today?

How do these factors work on the ground and institutionally and what are the consequences?

What are the ideas about race, and racial identities that enable the normalcy of stark racial differences today?

In particular, what role do key ideas such as “colorblindness” and “post race” play in shaping perception and outcomes?

What can be done to challenge ideological and structural impediments to a racially egalitarian society?


By Tom Shapiro is the Pokross Professor of Law and Social Policy and the Director of the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University. Shapiro is a leader in the asset development field with a particular focus on closing the racial wealth gap