Economic Security
Overview
Racial equity work on economic security includes attention to wealth and poverty. Economic security is also sometimes defined as the distribution of opportunities such that individuals can meet their current basic needs, and are reasonably likely to be able to meet those needs in the future. Economic security crosses multiple issue areas, institutions and systems. For example, as described by the ILO (the International Labor Organization of the United Nations), economic security “is composed of basic social security, defined by access to basic needs infrastructure pertaining to health, education, dwelling, information, social protection and work-related security.”
This definition is helpful in two ways. First, it suggests some of the systems and institutions where there might be entry points for changing opportunities, policies and structures towards more equitable economic security. Second, the wording does not imply a particular set of assumptions about the mix of individual, governmental, corporate or other responsibilities for creating economic security—thus opening up the imagination beyond a particular set of cultural narratives. One way to understand racism is to note that racism is the condition by which the racial/ethnic group to which one is sorted creates both unequal opportunities, and unequal consequences for similar actions. The interaction of those is powerful in providing unearned advantages to whites as a group, and unearned disadvantages to people of color as a group, and differently for different groups of color. Therefore, the entry points for taking action can include the distribution of opportunities and the equalizing of consequences for the same actions.
Key sites
Practices
- Racial Equity Economic Security
- What Does the Economic Structure of the U.S. Look Like?
- The New Bottom Line: Building Alignment and Scale to Confront the Economic Crisis
- Can We Have Capitalism Without Racism? The Invisible Chains of Debt and the Catastrophic Loss of African American Wealth
- The Equity Solution: Racial Inclusion Is Key to Growing a Strong New Economy
- Stacked Deck: How the Racial Bias in Our Big Money Political System Undermines Our Democracy
- From Banks and Tanks to Cooperation and Caring: A Strategic Framework for a Just Transition
- State of the Dream 2019: The Perfect Storm
- Racial Wealth Learning Simulation: Webinar Re-Cap
- Dreams Deferred: How Enriching the 1% Widens the Racial Wealth Divide
- Ten Solutions to Bridge the Racial Wealth Divide
Research
- The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap: Explaining the Black-White Economic Divide
- Race and Recession: How Inequity Rigged the Economy and How to Change the Rules
- Race, the Job Market, and Economic Recovery: A Census Snapshot
- Doubly Divided - The Racial Wealth Gap
- The New New Deal
- Check The Color Line: 2009 Income Report
- Laying the Foundation for National Prosperity The Imperative of Closing the Racial Wealth Gap
- Breaking the Bank / (Re)Making the Bank: America's Financial Crisis and the Implications for Sustainable Advocacy for Fair Credit and Fair Banking
- Prosperity economics Building an Economy for All
- The State of Communities of Color in the U.S. Economy Still Feeling the Pain Three Years Into the Recovery
- State of the Dream 2013: A Long Way from Home
- Global Economic Exchange
- Wealth Inequality in America
- Opportunity in Connecticut: The Impact of Race, Poverty and Education on Family Economic Success
- The Unfinished March
- The Color of Wealth in Boston
- Plan for a New Future: The Impact of Social Security Reform on People of Color
- The Ever-Growing Gap
- A Window of Opportunity II: An Analysis of Public Opinion on Poverty
- The Asset Value of Whiteness: Understanding the Racial Wealth Gap
- The Road to Zero Wealth: How the Racial Wealth Divide is Hollowing out America's Middle Class
- Reducing Racial Wealth Inequalities in Greater Boston: Building a Shared Agenda
- Racial Equity Policy Design: A Continuos Struggle Against Inequity in Public Education
- Family Budget Calculator
- Accelerating Equity and Justice: Basice Income and Generation Wealth
- From Banks and Tank to Cooperation and Caring: A Strategic Framework for a Just Transition
