The absence of wealth creation in the African American community is at the root of lingering social inequalities. Where racism is the “disease”, insidious, inter-generational poverty, and societal and health inequities are the symptoms. Any attempt to cure this disease must begin with an imperative to ensure clear pathways to family wealth creation, wealth that may be transferred from generation to generation, inherited, accumulated and capitalized. Any cure must also ensure that wealth arising from equity investments in communities of color is at least shared with, and not extracted via sophisticated financial instruments that continue to prey on, these ever-vulnerable communities. This, we believe, is the essence of equitable community development.
Read the original piece authored by Kofi Bonner, Bruce Katz, Roberta Achtenburg, Lori Bamberger and myself.
