Since the Great Recession, most Americans’ standard of living has stagnated or declined. Economic inequality is at historical highs. But inequality’s influence differs by competition; African Us citizens’ net wealth is just a tenth that of white People in america, and over recent decades, white families have accumulated prosperity at 3 x the speed of black family members. In our significantly diverse country, sociologist Thomas M. Shapiro argues, prosperity disparities should be understood in tandem with racial inequities-a about Harmful Inequality: How America’s Prosperity Gap Destroys Mobility, Deepens the Racial Divide, and Threatens Our Future dangerous mixture he terms ‘toxic inequality.’

In Toxic Inequality, Shapiro reveals how these forces combine to trap families in place. Following nearly two hundred families of different races and income amounts over an interval of twelve years, Shapiro’s analysis vividly docs the recession’s toll on parents and kids, the ways families use assets to manage crises and create possibilities, and the real reasons some families build wealth while some struggle in poverty. The structure of our neighborhoods, workplaces, and tax code-much more than specific choices-push some forwards and hold others back.

America’s growing prosperity gap and its yawning racial divide have already been forged by background and preserved by plan, and only bold, race-conscious reforms can move us toward a more just society.