“The Color of Money: How can journalists improve their coverage of the racial wealth gap?”

NYU’s Business & Economic Reporting masters programme, with support from the Marjorie Deane Financial Journalism Foundation, is pleased to present a lecture by Professor Mehrsa Baradaran, a leading authority on banking law and the racial wealth gap. Held via Zoom on January 28 at 12:00 pm ET (17:00 UK time), this event is free and open to the public. RSVP here and NYU will share a Zoom link closer to the date.

When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the black community owned less than 1% of the nation’s total wealth. More than 150 years later, that number has barely budged. In her book, The Color of Money, Professor Baradaran explains the stubborn persistence of this racial wealth gap by focusing on black banks, the generators of wealth in the black community. Her research challenges the long-standing belief that black communities could ever hope to accumulate wealth in a segregated economy.

Professor Baradaran is a law professor at University of California, Irvine. A leading expert on banking law, financial inclusion, inequality, and the racial wealth gap, she is also the author of How the Other Half Banks. 

More information about the masters programmes that the Marjorie Deane Financial Journalism Foundation helps to fund can be found here.