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Rich Thanks to Racism
More than fifty years after the Civil Right Movement, there are still glaring racial inequities all across the US. In Rich Thanks to Racism, one of the country's leading civil rights lawyers, Jim Freeman, explains why as he reveals the hidden strategy behind systemic racism. He details how the driving force behind the public policies that continue to devastate communities of color across the US is a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals who profit mightily from racial inequality.
In this groundbreaking examination of "strategic racism," Freeman carefully dissects the cruel and deeply harmful policies within the education, criminal justice, and immigration systems to discover their origins and why they persist. He uncovers billions of dollars in aligned investments by Bill Gates, Charles Koch, Mark Zuckerberg, and a handful of other billionaires that are dismantling public school systems across the US. He exposes how the greed of prominent US corporations and Wall Street banks were instrumental in creating the world's largest prison population and our most extreme anti-immigrant policies. He also demonstrates how these "racism profiteers" prevent these flagrant injustices from being addressed by pitting white communities against communities of color, obscuring the fact that the struggles faced by white people are deeply connected with those faced by people of color.
Rich Thanks to Racism is an invaluable roadmap for all those who recognize that the key to unlocking America's full potential is for more people of all races and ethnicities to prioritize racial justice.
In this groundbreaking examination of "strategic racism," Freeman carefully dissects the cruel and deeply harmful policies within the education, criminal justice, and immigration systems to discover their origins and why they persist. He uncovers billions of dollars in aligned investments by Bill Gates, Charles Koch, Mark Zuckerberg, and a handful of other billionaires that are dismantling public school systems across the US. He exposes how the greed of prominent US corporations and Wall Street banks were instrumental in creating the world's largest prison population and our most extreme anti-immigrant policies. He also demonstrates how these "racism profiteers" prevent these flagrant injustices from being addressed by pitting white communities against communities of color, obscuring the fact that the struggles faced by white people are deeply connected with those faced by people of color.
Rich Thanks to Racism is an invaluable roadmap for all those who recognize that the key to unlocking America's full potential is for more people of all races and ethnicities to prioritize racial justice.
296 pages, Hardcover
Published April 15, 2021
23 people are currently reading
270 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 19, 2021
The author tells us, from his researches, that the 400 richest individuals in USA have more wealth than all 16 million black households. He grew up in a normal middle class white household but has worked among communities of colour and sees massive inequalities.
I don't live in America, but I've been reading about it. I suggest if you go back to Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, you will see this now decades-old undercover journalism book showing how the poor people (like the woefully unqualified middle aged home-maker she pretended to be) worked two or three physical jobs to live indoors, while the rich people owned firms where their staff could not afford to buy goods and kept wages below the official poverty line. This policy was not aimed at any race or class; it was just about money. The poorer people included those with less education, or less good education, and this accentuated a racial divide which has since been perpetuated.
Another book, Third Wave Capitalism: How Money, Power, and the Pursuit of Self-Interest Have Imperiled the American Dream by John Ehrenreich, has shown me that public policies across many states have been privatising public services and the new owners closing those that don't bring income, like libraries, while firing staff and paying less for essential workers. This author explained that women, who spent less time in higher education and work due to family issues, plus people of colour, were much more often the losers from this kind of policy. Women of colour were thus the biggest losers. The author shows that even when politicians were elected on a platform of prioritising public services, generally they did the opposite. He colour-coded states so house-hunters could see where to bring up kids; the states along the coasts were mostly spending more on education, those in the centre and south, less.
The author of the current book may see lobbying for the interests of wealthy giant corporations as racially biased; I venture to suggest that this may be the outcome but it would not be even necessary to the picture. If the company thinks it can make more money by exploiting a law or loophole - like operating a polluting plant in a state that doesn't require them to clean the air and water and clean after they close the plant - that is what they will do regardless of what colour community lives nearby. It just happens that communities of colour are the ones with this kind of legislature running their state or county. And better off people won't move there because they can afford houses in a clean water district. Why the legislature is allowing this kind of harm is the question that needs to be answered. The local people need to vote better and provide better candidates, whom they then hold responsible. Peter Matthiessen wrote Indian Country about lands and people being exploited for water rights and mining coal and uranium. The people there just happened to be Native American. Whoever lived there would have been exploited. They needed jobs.
Schools are shown at the start as being closed down 'due to lack of need', resulting in an under resourced school trying to cater for all the pupils of the district and failing. I started aged four in a class of 59 to 61 pupils; one teacher. Nobody was a different colour. Now in Ireland, a class half that size would raise protests from teachers. But that is because Ireland is better off now. Ireland is not spending vast amounts on arms. Ireland funds education. Even having said that, a juvenile prison was built in the west of Dublin with a gym, showers, library, metalwork and other training facilities. A school nearby promptly asked to swap buildings. They had been asking for that kind of funding for those kind of buildings for years, and not received them. The school said if schools in the area got better facilities than prefabs, the juvenile jail would not be needed. There was no colour issue here.
The author has a chapter on 'the criminal justice money pit.' He tells us that disproportionately more people of colour are stopped and searched in New York. I recently heard a police officer from London explaining that whoever the people are who are selling drugs or carrying knives, those are the people you need to be searching, not the harmless ones. And generally, the victims of those criminals will be in their own communities. So, there are two sides to that story. The minor crimes he mentions like asking for a water cup but filling it with soda, or sharing a netflix password, relate to not having enough money. He could try living in Germany, where people assure me nobody breaks the rules, but everyone is well paid, so they don't need to break rules.
Later in the book the author talks about undocumented immigrants (who have no voice) compared to Wall Street. More money is spent on lobbying government (major and local) than is spent on doing good. Medical care is far more costly than it needs to be in the US. Like Naomi Klein in This Changes Everything - a book about climate change and exploitation of communities - the author tells us that ordinary people have to get organised if they are going to beat the highly organised lobby of the wealthy.
This is certainly an interesting book, not cheerful, but economics has been depressing for decades. I suggest looking to policies set by the EU for control over major firms, GDPR and limiting pesticide use, providing healthcare, equality of treatment etc.
Notes P255 - 285 in my ARC. I did not get an index. The graphs are mainly about state spending. I would have been interested to see some photos. The editing and references (often links) are to a good standard.
I read an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.
I don't live in America, but I've been reading about it. I suggest if you go back to Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, you will see this now decades-old undercover journalism book showing how the poor people (like the woefully unqualified middle aged home-maker she pretended to be) worked two or three physical jobs to live indoors, while the rich people owned firms where their staff could not afford to buy goods and kept wages below the official poverty line. This policy was not aimed at any race or class; it was just about money. The poorer people included those with less education, or less good education, and this accentuated a racial divide which has since been perpetuated.
Another book, Third Wave Capitalism: How Money, Power, and the Pursuit of Self-Interest Have Imperiled the American Dream by John Ehrenreich, has shown me that public policies across many states have been privatising public services and the new owners closing those that don't bring income, like libraries, while firing staff and paying less for essential workers. This author explained that women, who spent less time in higher education and work due to family issues, plus people of colour, were much more often the losers from this kind of policy. Women of colour were thus the biggest losers. The author shows that even when politicians were elected on a platform of prioritising public services, generally they did the opposite. He colour-coded states so house-hunters could see where to bring up kids; the states along the coasts were mostly spending more on education, those in the centre and south, less.
The author of the current book may see lobbying for the interests of wealthy giant corporations as racially biased; I venture to suggest that this may be the outcome but it would not be even necessary to the picture. If the company thinks it can make more money by exploiting a law or loophole - like operating a polluting plant in a state that doesn't require them to clean the air and water and clean after they close the plant - that is what they will do regardless of what colour community lives nearby. It just happens that communities of colour are the ones with this kind of legislature running their state or county. And better off people won't move there because they can afford houses in a clean water district. Why the legislature is allowing this kind of harm is the question that needs to be answered. The local people need to vote better and provide better candidates, whom they then hold responsible. Peter Matthiessen wrote Indian Country about lands and people being exploited for water rights and mining coal and uranium. The people there just happened to be Native American. Whoever lived there would have been exploited. They needed jobs.
Schools are shown at the start as being closed down 'due to lack of need', resulting in an under resourced school trying to cater for all the pupils of the district and failing. I started aged four in a class of 59 to 61 pupils; one teacher. Nobody was a different colour. Now in Ireland, a class half that size would raise protests from teachers. But that is because Ireland is better off now. Ireland is not spending vast amounts on arms. Ireland funds education. Even having said that, a juvenile prison was built in the west of Dublin with a gym, showers, library, metalwork and other training facilities. A school nearby promptly asked to swap buildings. They had been asking for that kind of funding for those kind of buildings for years, and not received them. The school said if schools in the area got better facilities than prefabs, the juvenile jail would not be needed. There was no colour issue here.
The author has a chapter on 'the criminal justice money pit.' He tells us that disproportionately more people of colour are stopped and searched in New York. I recently heard a police officer from London explaining that whoever the people are who are selling drugs or carrying knives, those are the people you need to be searching, not the harmless ones. And generally, the victims of those criminals will be in their own communities. So, there are two sides to that story. The minor crimes he mentions like asking for a water cup but filling it with soda, or sharing a netflix password, relate to not having enough money. He could try living in Germany, where people assure me nobody breaks the rules, but everyone is well paid, so they don't need to break rules.
Later in the book the author talks about undocumented immigrants (who have no voice) compared to Wall Street. More money is spent on lobbying government (major and local) than is spent on doing good. Medical care is far more costly than it needs to be in the US. Like Naomi Klein in This Changes Everything - a book about climate change and exploitation of communities - the author tells us that ordinary people have to get organised if they are going to beat the highly organised lobby of the wealthy.
This is certainly an interesting book, not cheerful, but economics has been depressing for decades. I suggest looking to policies set by the EU for control over major firms, GDPR and limiting pesticide use, providing healthcare, equality of treatment etc.
Notes P255 - 285 in my ARC. I did not get an index. The graphs are mainly about state spending. I would have been interested to see some photos. The editing and references (often links) are to a good standard.
I read an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.
February 28, 2021
I read this book as an advanced copy through NetGalley.
I have read numerous books on racism and our culture, but this book had a very interesting perspective. There was a lot of information on how and why policies and laws that harm the vast majority, and more specifically BIPOC, are able to be put in place and continue to operate even when there is a direct relationship between the law and the detriment to the majority. The author also demonstrates how even the ultra-wealthy who try to present as philanthropic and liberal, are usually still investing in groups and institutions that are harmful towards people in order to produce a profit for themselves. I especially liked that in each chapter the author provided information on the ways money is being made by the ultra-wealthy in the topic area of the chapter, and then another list of ways that this area could be improved and made to benefit the majority of the population rather than the wealthy few.
I think the author also does well with navigating the conversation as a white person and making sure to stay within experiences he has had or heard directly rather than attempting to generalize his opinion to others.
I have read numerous books on racism and our culture, but this book had a very interesting perspective. There was a lot of information on how and why policies and laws that harm the vast majority, and more specifically BIPOC, are able to be put in place and continue to operate even when there is a direct relationship between the law and the detriment to the majority. The author also demonstrates how even the ultra-wealthy who try to present as philanthropic and liberal, are usually still investing in groups and institutions that are harmful towards people in order to produce a profit for themselves. I especially liked that in each chapter the author provided information on the ways money is being made by the ultra-wealthy in the topic area of the chapter, and then another list of ways that this area could be improved and made to benefit the majority of the population rather than the wealthy few.
I think the author also does well with navigating the conversation as a white person and making sure to stay within experiences he has had or heard directly rather than attempting to generalize his opinion to others.
October 1, 2023
I recieved a free copy from netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is really interesting. As someone familiar with the ideas brought up in this book, there was a lot I learned as well. Worth reading.
April 18, 2024
Overall an extremely informative read; however, I feel that the focus of the book was pulled in many different directions
April 17, 2021
I am only in the middle of the chapter on education, but from what I see so far, this is an extremely important book.
In the education chapter, Freeman demonstrates that a small number of ultra-rich individuals or corporations, including Charles Koch and, surprisingly, Bill Gates, have supplied enormous amounts of money to support charter schools and/or school vouchers. Both charter schools and the voucher system operate, as might be expected, to undermine public schools. When charter schools become numerous in a city, attendance at public schools go down. Pretty soon, strapped city budgets decide to close the underutilized schools, creating further overcrowding in the remaining public schools. It's easy to see that if charter schools continue to spread, public education will be forced to decline! I don't care if the rest of the book doesn't live up to this chapter. The insights offered in this chapter alone make the book supremely worthwhile!
I hope it will get wide attention, and suitable action to prevent the end of public education in some of the country's largest cities.
In the education chapter, Freeman demonstrates that a small number of ultra-rich individuals or corporations, including Charles Koch and, surprisingly, Bill Gates, have supplied enormous amounts of money to support charter schools and/or school vouchers. Both charter schools and the voucher system operate, as might be expected, to undermine public schools. When charter schools become numerous in a city, attendance at public schools go down. Pretty soon, strapped city budgets decide to close the underutilized schools, creating further overcrowding in the remaining public schools. It's easy to see that if charter schools continue to spread, public education will be forced to decline! I don't care if the rest of the book doesn't live up to this chapter. The insights offered in this chapter alone make the book supremely worthwhile!
I hope it will get wide attention, and suitable action to prevent the end of public education in some of the country's largest cities.
April 7, 2021
Recommend this book to those who are unfamiliar with the systematic racist policies that exists in primary education, criminal "justice", and immigration. While I was fairly familiar with the inequities that exists throughout these spaces, I still learned plenty. I found the first part of the book - on charter and voucher schools - to be the most compelling to me. The author does a great job drawing parallels across all three of these spaces in terms of solutions, but also in identifying who the big corporations are that are funding all of these horrible initiatives. My only criticism is that I would've expected more time be spent on explaining how these corporations make profits from these initiatives. Since that is the title of the book after all. I feel like the book was a bit too verbose and repetitive about the injustices, and perhaps overshadowed the point of this book.
June 28, 2021
I really enjoyed this book. Well, "enjoy" is a strange word to use because I got really angry reading it. Freeman presents a scathing depiction of the bad guys: the ultra wealthy. He doesn't hold the punches so many authors do in order to avoid mentioning political parties.
There are three main topics he covers in this book: education, the carceral state, and immigration. The reason why I give this book 4 stars is because he's missing a huge pillar of racial exploitation by the rich, which is environmental exploitation. Many of the villains in this book made their fortunes through environmental extraction and degradation; most notably the Kochs, who have been responsible for more environmental infractions than any other company in American history.
There are three main topics he covers in this book: education, the carceral state, and immigration. The reason why I give this book 4 stars is because he's missing a huge pillar of racial exploitation by the rich, which is environmental exploitation. Many of the villains in this book made their fortunes through environmental extraction and degradation; most notably the Kochs, who have been responsible for more environmental infractions than any other company in American history.
March 8, 2021
Rich Thanks to Racism by Jim Freeman
9781501755132
308 Pages
Publisher: Cornell University Press / ILR Press
Release Date: April 15, 2021
Nonfiction, Racism, Civil Rights, Politics
The author discusses the wealth behind the racism in the United States. He states there are about 400 people that make the decisions for the millions in the population. His research his very throughout and although it is a tough subject, the book was amazing. The author’s statement of racism being like the game whack-a-mole made a lot of sense. As one issue is addressed, another pops up. If you would like to learn about the roots of our current racial situation, I highly suggest this book.
9781501755132
308 Pages
Publisher: Cornell University Press / ILR Press
Release Date: April 15, 2021
Nonfiction, Racism, Civil Rights, Politics
The author discusses the wealth behind the racism in the United States. He states there are about 400 people that make the decisions for the millions in the population. His research his very throughout and although it is a tough subject, the book was amazing. The author’s statement of racism being like the game whack-a-mole made a lot of sense. As one issue is addressed, another pops up. If you would like to learn about the roots of our current racial situation, I highly suggest this book.
June 6, 2021
Freeman makes a strong case about how the ultra wealthy benefit from: the deterioration and the dismantling of public education, the militarization of policing in neighborhoods with underprivileged POC,the school-to-prison pipeline and the criminalization of immigration.
He also sheds light on how those political agendas has been primarily driven through influence organizations that are primarily founded by billionaires.
It is a very interesting book that offers some interesting food for thought on the power of strategic political mobilization and policy development.
It is a book about the USA, but it might interest foreign readers with its progressive analysis and reflections.
He also sheds light on how those political agendas has been primarily driven through influence organizations that are primarily founded by billionaires.
It is a very interesting book that offers some interesting food for thought on the power of strategic political mobilization and policy development.
It is a book about the USA, but it might interest foreign readers with its progressive analysis and reflections.
Read
April 15, 2021I received a copy of this book to read in exchange for a review courtesy of Press Shop PR.
This is a thought-provoking, well-researched book. It is a current look at how systematic racism is deeply rooted in the history of the United States, and how it continues due to the influence of the wealthy few on government and policy.
See my full review here: https://underground-breakers.com/rich...
This is a thought-provoking, well-researched book. It is a current look at how systematic racism is deeply rooted in the history of the United States, and how it continues due to the influence of the wealthy few on government and policy.
See my full review here: https://underground-breakers.com/rich...
March 20, 2021
This book must have been written a long time ago. Also, many people would not like the book because of the conclusions and facts included in the book. The author shows well how certain institutions and even laws support specific communities and in fact even reinforce racism. I recommend it, even for people outside the United States, as the conclusions are global.
October 10, 2021
For all the people that think racism is over with and that Jim Crow happened so long ago, this book will set you straight. It was a very interesting read, and so needed in today's time. This book is truly a must read.
December 1, 2021
Some may call it a paradox for a book to be both a page turner and to be dense with data. Jim Freeman proves otherwise with this must read for anyone concerned about fostering a sustainable and equitable future.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews