False narratives feed the wealth gap

Racial wealth gaps take disproportionate toll on the physical and financial health of Black people. Policies meant to close the gap are not making a difference, and anti-Black policies disproportionately set up barriers to wealth accumulation and actively extract.

In this report, Natasha Hicks, Fenaba R. Addo, Anne E. Price, and William A. Darity, Jr, describe how narratives — “our cultural understandings, frames of reference, or mental models” — affect how leaders create policies, and how people interpret them. Anti-Black narratives feed false justifications for the racial wealth gap and ultimately go on to shape minds and large-scale decisions in policy, finance, and more.