The Hidden Cost of Being African American

Shapiro's research does something important: it shifts the inequality conversation from income to wealth, revealing why two families earning identical salaries can still live in completely different worlds depending on what they inherited. Drawing on national survey data and nearly 200 family interviews, he shows how housing markets and wealth-transfer policies compound advantages and disadvantages across generations. It's rigorous without being cold — the personal interviews give the statistics a human face. The honest caveat is that the underlying data is now over two decades old, so specific figures should be read in that context. The core argument about wealth versus income, though, remains as relevant as ever for anyone thinking seriously about economic inequality.