The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America

The Black Tax exposes the racist practices that have long been hidden in America's tax regimes, revealing the shocking history and ruinous consequences of inequitable and predatory tax laws. It shows how African Americans have been forced to pay more for less and stripped of their land and investments, and how this has contributed to the enormous concentration of wealth at the top and the absence of wealth among most Black households.

Format: Hardback
Length: 456 pages
Publication date: 24 April 2024
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

Revealing a history that is deep, broad, and infuriating, The Black Tax casts a bold light on the racist practices long hidden in the shadows of America's tax regimes. American taxation is unfair, and it is most unfair to the very people who critically need its support. Not only do taxpayers with fewer resources—less wealth, power, and land—pay more than the well-off but they are forced to fight for their rights within an unjust system that undermines any attempts to improve their position or economic standing. In The Black Tax, Andrew W. Kahrl reveals the shocking history and ruinous consequences of inequitable and predatory tax laws in this country—above all, widespread and devastating racial dispossession. Throughout the twentieth century, African Americans acquired substantial amounts of property nationwide. But racist practices, obscure processes, and outright theft diminished their holdings and their power. Of these, Kahrl shows, few were more powerful, or more quietly destructive, than property taxes. He examines all the structural features and hidden traps within America's tax system that have forced Black Americans to pay more for less and stripped them of their land and investments, and he reveals the staggering cost. The story of America's now enormous concentration of wealth at the top—and the equally enormous absence of wealth among most Black households—has its roots here. Kahrl exposes the painful history of these practices, from Reconstruction up to the present, describing how discrimination continues to take new forms, even as people continue to fight for their rights, their assets, and their power. If you want to understand the extreme economic disadvantages and persistent racial inequalities that African American households continue to face, this book is essential reading.

Weight: 739g
Dimension: 229 x 152 x 33 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780226730592