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It's Not About Whiteness, It's About Wealth: How the Economics of Race Really Work
'Remi Adekoya is a welcome blast of unsentimental rigour into a race debate clogged up with emotion and moralism. His dissection of the economic underpinnings of the world's racial and national hierarchies will make uncomfortable reading for both liberals and conservatives' David Goodhart
'This terrifically illuminating book . . . offers a new way of understanding modern racial structures' i Newspaper
What really matters when it comes to race?
Western conversations on race and racism revolve around familiar themes; colonialism, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the ideology of white supremacism form the holy trinity of the race debate. But what if we are neglecting a key piece of the puzzle? Something that explains why a racial order persists today despite a moral consensus it should not.
In It's Not About Whiteness, It's About Wealth , Remi Adekoya persuasively argues that - in our capitalist world - it is socioeconomic realities which play the leading role in sustaining racial hierarchies in everyday life and in the global big picture, something regularly overlooked in the current debate. Financial power is what enables ultimate influence over events, environments, and people, and, as Adekoya expertly demonstrates, it is money more than anything else that maintains the racial pecking order. Exploring immigration, technology, media, group stereotypes, status perceptions and more, this book cleverly shows how wealth determines what's what in key domains of modern life, and how this affects racial dynamics across the globe.
An incisive, insightful and open investigation into the links between financial power and racial hierarchies, Adekoya sheds much needed light on the status and power imbalances shaping our world and reveals what needs to be done to combat them going forward.
'This terrifically illuminating book . . . offers a new way of understanding modern racial structures' i Newspaper
What really matters when it comes to race?
Western conversations on race and racism revolve around familiar themes; colonialism, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the ideology of white supremacism form the holy trinity of the race debate. But what if we are neglecting a key piece of the puzzle? Something that explains why a racial order persists today despite a moral consensus it should not.
In It's Not About Whiteness, It's About Wealth , Remi Adekoya persuasively argues that - in our capitalist world - it is socioeconomic realities which play the leading role in sustaining racial hierarchies in everyday life and in the global big picture, something regularly overlooked in the current debate. Financial power is what enables ultimate influence over events, environments, and people, and, as Adekoya expertly demonstrates, it is money more than anything else that maintains the racial pecking order. Exploring immigration, technology, media, group stereotypes, status perceptions and more, this book cleverly shows how wealth determines what's what in key domains of modern life, and how this affects racial dynamics across the globe.
An incisive, insightful and open investigation into the links between financial power and racial hierarchies, Adekoya sheds much needed light on the status and power imbalances shaping our world and reveals what needs to be done to combat them going forward.
- GenresNonfiction
224 pages, Paperback
Published July 16, 2024
6 people are currently reading
166 people want to read
About the author
Remi Adekoya
2 books8 followersRemi Adekoya is Polish-Nigerian and teaches political science at Sheffield University, UK. He is the former political editor of the Warsaw Business Journal. He has written for Foreign Affairs, Politico and several Polish newspapers, and provided sociopolitical commentary and analysis for the BBC, Foreign Policy, Stratfor and Radio France International among others.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 16, 2024
For anyone who tracks my non-fiction reviews will know that I consider wealth inequality to be the "final boss" of progressive ideals, so this book seemed like a good fit for me - exploring how issues of racism interplay with wealth.
And I have got to say - I learned a LOT. Adekoya is a master of combing his own experience and observations, education and academics and evidence to back up his arguments. While it may be a hard read for some I found it incredibly helpful and insightful.
Adekoya is quite terse and at first when reading this I was worried about the direction of the overall thesis, however it turns out the sarcasm and irony hit just right, in a way that is both challenging and disarming for the topic.
About the topic? I think this book essentially answers the question: What is Systemic Racism? It's not just straight out wealth, but international standings and 'image' educational institutions. Adekoye's argument is not that Racism doesn't exist or isn't about say supremist ideology but rather that there is an overarching 'system' largely to do with wealth that has massive impacts on our perceptions of race.
The thesis is largely identifying the problem and Adekoya admits himself that solutions are not obvious or remotely easy, however he does add cautions that if issues of racism aren't addressed then outcomes are not likely to be favourable for anyone.
Highly recommended.
And I have got to say - I learned a LOT. Adekoya is a master of combing his own experience and observations, education and academics and evidence to back up his arguments. While it may be a hard read for some I found it incredibly helpful and insightful.
Adekoya is quite terse and at first when reading this I was worried about the direction of the overall thesis, however it turns out the sarcasm and irony hit just right, in a way that is both challenging and disarming for the topic.
About the topic? I think this book essentially answers the question: What is Systemic Racism? It's not just straight out wealth, but international standings and 'image' educational institutions. Adekoye's argument is not that Racism doesn't exist or isn't about say supremist ideology but rather that there is an overarching 'system' largely to do with wealth that has massive impacts on our perceptions of race.
The thesis is largely identifying the problem and Adekoya admits himself that solutions are not obvious or remotely easy, however he does add cautions that if issues of racism aren't addressed then outcomes are not likely to be favourable for anyone.
Highly recommended.
December 29, 2023
In his refreshingly global examination of race, Remi Adekoya zooms out from the Anglophone world to explore the wider issues that underlie the attitudes, perceptions, biases, and disparities between commonly identified racial groups. If you're coming into this expecting it to be another regurgitation of anti-racist platitudes or anti-woke polemics, you will be disappointed. While "It's Not About Whiteness" is light on solutions, it does such an insightful and data-driven job at diagnosing many of the root problems within race relations that I'd recommend it to anyone.
Want to read
July 20, 2024I haven't read this yet, so I'll update it when I do, but there's a very similar book called The Hidden Cost of Being African American by Thomas Shapiro, published in 2005.
September 21, 2024
Polish-Nigerian Remi Adekoya's 'It's Not About Whiteness, It's About Wealth' is a welcome addition to the literature on race.
Adekoya is a political scientist living in England, and his mixed-race background, along with his experience of having actually lived in Nigeria and Poland before settling in England, provide a powerfully pragmatic tonic for overheated Western conversations about race.
He opens this short, concise and impactful book with a story about an experiment. Specifically, a re-staging of a classic experiment, in which a child is presented with pictures of people - black, white or multiracial - and asked to indicate which people they 'liked'.
The preference shown by children for white people has been long-documented, but this particular study was staged in South Africa - 80% black, 9% white- yet the results were the same.
And herein lies the key insight of Adekoya's work - the preference is not a result of racial bias but rather indicates the experimental subjects' preference for status. The children liked the affluent - regardless of race.
Adekoya grew up in Nigeria, living without the material advantages of the Western world, among people with no real prospect for improving their lot, financially. As Adekoya notes early on, 'a race debate not embedded in detailed material realities is intellectual masturbation'. (p. 8)
Adekoya offers plenty of evidence to support his claims. His is an international take on race relations, and once the 'not-elite' countries of the world are added to the discussion, the power of money is fully revealed. Western stances on race relations put race first because they can AFFORD TO.
Money being more significant than race to poor Africans is an imminently reasonable proposition. As he notes, 'progressive Westerners not liking such worldviews is not going to stop others having them'.
There is a fundamental imbalance between the emigrant (generally more advantaged than the people left behind) and the immigrant (who typically moves to a world in which others are wealthier). And yet the flow of traffic remains the same - people leave in search or more, materially speaking.
Adekoya explores whether sometimes what people perceive as racism is more a simple difference in norms - giving the example of a middle-aged black Nigerian in London who perceives disrespect as racism rather than a different view of age hierarchies - confirmation bias. It's is his own diversity that allows him to make contentious claims such as this, a fact he notes himself.
Adekoya goes on to explain why this narrative is so sticky, exploring how perceived 'competence', as demonstrated by wealth, is a better indicator than race for value judgements about which group is 'better'.
This and other psychological tendencies prime us for quick, potentially biased judgements as a species, but our 'knowledge of how race works is usually derived from the writings of one or other prominent US-based scholar whose perspectives on the issue are primarily shaped the specific American context they inhabit'. (p. 77)
Gender is another subject for exploration. Controversially, perhaps, Adekoya argues 'it is now women who are increasingly setting the tone for how we should speak and act in the public sphere'. He concludes that DEI is so pervasive because 'women dominate the upper echelons of Human Resource departments'. (p. 137)
Western anti-racists are frequent targets for criticism here, and Adekoya lands a body blow when he writes 'the reason many antiracists focus on moral arguments is because they find the starkness of the material gaps to daunting'. (p. 162). Once again, 'it's about wealth'. 'For most people of colour in this world, the benefits of the moral atmosphere around race in Britain and America amount to zero'. (p. 163)
Adekoya concludes with a chapter arguing that empowering Africa and Africans is the way forward. The continent will soon constitute a quarter of the world's population, and their ruling classes need to start enabling African potential.
Consider me convinced. Published in 2023, this is one of the most relevant texts on race I could currently recomment, and I will be following Adekoya from now on.
BOOK GIVEAWAY - I accidentally ordered two copies of this from Amazon, and decided to keep both. So the first person who asks me for a copy gets one free! I'd love to have someone to talk to about this.
Adekoya is a political scientist living in England, and his mixed-race background, along with his experience of having actually lived in Nigeria and Poland before settling in England, provide a powerfully pragmatic tonic for overheated Western conversations about race.
He opens this short, concise and impactful book with a story about an experiment. Specifically, a re-staging of a classic experiment, in which a child is presented with pictures of people - black, white or multiracial - and asked to indicate which people they 'liked'.
The preference shown by children for white people has been long-documented, but this particular study was staged in South Africa - 80% black, 9% white- yet the results were the same.
And herein lies the key insight of Adekoya's work - the preference is not a result of racial bias but rather indicates the experimental subjects' preference for status. The children liked the affluent - regardless of race.
Adekoya grew up in Nigeria, living without the material advantages of the Western world, among people with no real prospect for improving their lot, financially. As Adekoya notes early on, 'a race debate not embedded in detailed material realities is intellectual masturbation'. (p. 8)
Adekoya offers plenty of evidence to support his claims. His is an international take on race relations, and once the 'not-elite' countries of the world are added to the discussion, the power of money is fully revealed. Western stances on race relations put race first because they can AFFORD TO.
Money being more significant than race to poor Africans is an imminently reasonable proposition. As he notes, 'progressive Westerners not liking such worldviews is not going to stop others having them'.
There is a fundamental imbalance between the emigrant (generally more advantaged than the people left behind) and the immigrant (who typically moves to a world in which others are wealthier). And yet the flow of traffic remains the same - people leave in search or more, materially speaking.
Adekoya explores whether sometimes what people perceive as racism is more a simple difference in norms - giving the example of a middle-aged black Nigerian in London who perceives disrespect as racism rather than a different view of age hierarchies - confirmation bias. It's is his own diversity that allows him to make contentious claims such as this, a fact he notes himself.
Adekoya goes on to explain why this narrative is so sticky, exploring how perceived 'competence', as demonstrated by wealth, is a better indicator than race for value judgements about which group is 'better'.
This and other psychological tendencies prime us for quick, potentially biased judgements as a species, but our 'knowledge of how race works is usually derived from the writings of one or other prominent US-based scholar whose perspectives on the issue are primarily shaped the specific American context they inhabit'. (p. 77)
Gender is another subject for exploration. Controversially, perhaps, Adekoya argues 'it is now women who are increasingly setting the tone for how we should speak and act in the public sphere'. He concludes that DEI is so pervasive because 'women dominate the upper echelons of Human Resource departments'. (p. 137)
Western anti-racists are frequent targets for criticism here, and Adekoya lands a body blow when he writes 'the reason many antiracists focus on moral arguments is because they find the starkness of the material gaps to daunting'. (p. 162). Once again, 'it's about wealth'. 'For most people of colour in this world, the benefits of the moral atmosphere around race in Britain and America amount to zero'. (p. 163)
Adekoya concludes with a chapter arguing that empowering Africa and Africans is the way forward. The continent will soon constitute a quarter of the world's population, and their ruling classes need to start enabling African potential.
Consider me convinced. Published in 2023, this is one of the most relevant texts on race I could currently recomment, and I will be following Adekoya from now on.
BOOK GIVEAWAY - I accidentally ordered two copies of this from Amazon, and decided to keep both. So the first person who asks me for a copy gets one free! I'd love to have someone to talk to about this.
March 1, 2024
This is a fantastic book which addresses the fundamental dynamics that govern race relations not just in the US & the UK but, importantly, throughout the world. When I first came across the title, I was a touch uncomfortable if I'm honest. Growing up within the intellectual sphere of liberal arts colleges in the US, anything which abdicates even a little responsibility for racial inequality from the moral failings of white people runs contrary to much of the implicit "moral power" that defines that world & its conversations about race (Adekoya beautifully articulates what's behind this dynamic in a late chapter). However, I was floored with the depth & quality of Dr. Adekoya's well-researched analysis upon further inspection, much of which takes a lot of the current Western discourse about race & flips it on its head, stating that the most important problem is not so much a moral one as it is an economic one.
Of particular note for me were chapters five, nine, and ten. These chapters addressed academia, feminism, and moral power, respectively. There were too many things of note to comment on here, but I found these chapters to be particularly well-argued and they encapsulate the most salient points of his book's central themes & thesis. Additionally, Dr. Adekoya's book is a wonderfully refreshing and much needed departure from the myopically Anglo-Saxon perspectives that generally guide these discussions. Instead, he takes a much more globally informed & multicultural viewpoint, which I enjoyed immensely.
The only reason I took off a star on this review was because I found the central point of his book to become a touch repetitive after a few examples. This made thirty odd pages in the middle a touch dry. That said, Dr. Adekoya ends things with a bang in the final chapters, so I can't fault him too much. A great book, and highly recommended for anyone with a passing interest in the topic.
4.5/5
Of particular note for me were chapters five, nine, and ten. These chapters addressed academia, feminism, and moral power, respectively. There were too many things of note to comment on here, but I found these chapters to be particularly well-argued and they encapsulate the most salient points of his book's central themes & thesis. Additionally, Dr. Adekoya's book is a wonderfully refreshing and much needed departure from the myopically Anglo-Saxon perspectives that generally guide these discussions. Instead, he takes a much more globally informed & multicultural viewpoint, which I enjoyed immensely.
The only reason I took off a star on this review was because I found the central point of his book to become a touch repetitive after a few examples. This made thirty odd pages in the middle a touch dry. That said, Dr. Adekoya ends things with a bang in the final chapters, so I can't fault him too much. A great book, and highly recommended for anyone with a passing interest in the topic.
4.5/5
March 10, 2024
Catchy title when it's about wealth & the colour of your skin, and the author's point that we opt for things that signify wealth no matter our skin colour indicates the value put on wealth; however, he also points out that obtaining wealth as a life goal is not a white-skinned prerogative, & is in fact more important to everyone else, Asians, Africans, Arabs & other non-Europeans. Adekoya links skin colour to the power dynamics around money, passports, academia, media, international politics, the conflict between capitalist versus communist economic systems, & the dominance of global money markets (run by the liberal white elite). This dominance is not just about money as culturally, to be seen as 'international' means that something is recognised from the viewpoint of the western European world, i.e. book awards, architectural achievements, film accolades, etc. His viewpoint is refreshing though I struggled a little with his chapter on the 'Feminisation of Power' in the white mans' world, as he does not identify straightforward patriarchal issues; he posits a future world with young African leaders, and I hope that future will be less about race & skin colour & more about equity; perhaps the answer is for future generations to have mottled brown-white-black-yellow-pink coloured skin tones so that we could all be camouflaged safely on this planet!
April 2, 2025
‘our knowledge of how race works is usually derived from the writings of one or other prominent US-based scholar whose perspectives on the issue are primarily shaped by the specific American context they inhabit. The debate on what is a global issue has thus become an incredibly Western-centric affair almost wholly focused on happenings in the Us and to a lesser extent the UK.’
when i first started reading this book, i was surprised by how much of adekoya’s argument centred Africa’s role in global race relations, as i had gone in expecting the book to deal with a UK-specific context. adekoya eloquently and elegantly posits an explanation for why this is, and has such fun while doing so.
it’s been a long time since i last read a theory book and was genuinely gripped, but both the strength of adekoya’s argument and prose meant i was literally incapable of putting this down. every chapter has a “wow!” moment where your worldview is challenged, but something about adekoya’s writing makes these seem more like meditative moments than chastisements.
really great book with fantastic insights and a thoroughly enjoyable writing style.
when i first started reading this book, i was surprised by how much of adekoya’s argument centred Africa’s role in global race relations, as i had gone in expecting the book to deal with a UK-specific context. adekoya eloquently and elegantly posits an explanation for why this is, and has such fun while doing so.
it’s been a long time since i last read a theory book and was genuinely gripped, but both the strength of adekoya’s argument and prose meant i was literally incapable of putting this down. every chapter has a “wow!” moment where your worldview is challenged, but something about adekoya’s writing makes these seem more like meditative moments than chastisements.
really great book with fantastic insights and a thoroughly enjoyable writing style.
October 12, 2025
Accessible writing, no-nonsense perspectives on the role of economics in the race discussion, and why money ultimately defines perceptions of power, and its application in the real world. It will also feel uncomfortable at times if you're a 20/30 something progressive with a decent income. 100% recommend
September 9, 2024
Great read with some great arguments that are severely backed up with lots of stats, very factual!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews