“The market is not a free market when a segment of the population is systematically excluded from participation.”
Photographed by Christina House/Los Angeles Times via Contour RA
Author and Banking Scholar
Mehrsa Baradaran
Mehrsa Baradaran, acclaimed author and professor of law, is recognized for her expertise on banking law, wealth inequality, financial regulation, and black exclusion within the financial system. Her scholarship includes the books: "How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy," and "The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap," both published by the Harvard University Press. Her latest book, "The Quiet Coup: Neoliberalism and the Looting of America," is published by North Liveright, and is described as an “essential reading to understand the economic state of the nation” by Kirkus Reviews.
Baradaran has advised U.S. Senators and Congressmen on policy, testified before the U.S. Congress, spoken at national and international forums like the U.S. Treasury and the World Bank, and was appointed to two Presidential Transition Teams. She was nominated as Comptroller for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in 2020.
Dive into Mehrsa Baradaran's latest release:
The Racial Wealth Gap: A Brief History
Why has the racial wealth gap between the median white households and median Black households remained stagnant over the past century, never narrowing below six to one? Leading expert on race and financial equality Mehrsa Baradaran attempts to answer this question in this sweeping yet accessible history. She shows how decades of the laws rooted in white supremacy―from slavery and the broken Reconstruction-era promise of “40 acres and a mule,” to the racist policies of the Jim Crow and New Deal eras―have restricted Black access to capital, credit, homeownership, and other mechanisms of wealth creation while subsidizing the rising economic fortunes of white families.
Mehrsa Baradaran: Translator of dollars and sense
Los Angeles Times By Jie Jenny Zou
June 23, 2024
