A New Institute, a New Book and a Series on Racism: Our Journey on Racial Equity

The last decade has been a journey for me and for the St. Louis Fed’s analysis and outreach efforts around racial economic equity.

When I started at the St. Louis Fed in 2011, race and ethnicity was for me—if not for all of us—a sometimes challenging subject. Further adding to the challenge are the difficulties in trying to assess, for example, the effect of race on economic outcomes or on the reach and quality of banking services in the communities we serve. Our efforts to describe racial inequality are highly data-driven, which presents several challenges. If it is available, data on race is complex, and interpreting data on race is complicated.  

In mid-2014, believing it was important to try, my colleague William R. Emmons—then the lead economist in the Center for Household Financial Stability that he and I had launched the previous year—started outlining  a draft report on the racial wealth gap. It generated some constructive internal discussions before it was published as the first in the Center’s 2015 three-part series, “The Demographics of Wealth.”

Then, in August 2014, the fatal police officer shooting of Black 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., led to protests and eventually to broader conversations about racial and economic equity across the St. Louis region, including at the St. Louis Fed. We knew we had an opportunity to highlight and deepen our work examining the intersection of race and economic outcomes.

Work Expands to Include Other Wealth Gaps

One such opportunity arose when I was invited to testify before the Missouri governor’s Ferguson Commission, which was appointed to study “the social and economic conditions that impede progress, equality and safety in the St. Louis region.” The fact base our Center provided on the racial wealth gap was well received and proved constructive for many other discussions.

Over the next several years, the Center contributed more reports, testimonies, op-eds and events. Our Center’s scope had widened to addressing educational, generational and (later on) gender wealth gaps as well—finding, importantly, that race exacerbates each of these other gaps.

Then in May 2020, the world recoiled in horror at the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Widespread awareness of other high-profile tragic deaths of Black Americans followed. Despite the rising death toll from an emerging global pandemic, millions took to the streets worldwide demanding action and accountability.

Institute Launches amid New Calls for Racial Equity

In response to these events and renewed calls for racial equity, including economic equity, we set out to listen, learn and act.

• We launched our new Institute for Economic Equity in February 2021, an evolution from the Center for Household Financial Stability, which we sunset earlier this year; read my reflection on what the Center accomplished here.
• We organized a public event on bold responses to the racial wealth gap, also in February.
• We published a book about racial and other wealth gaps in late September.
• We heavily shaped and participated in a major Federal Reserve System event on the racial wealth gap and the economy on Oct. 20.

Since the launch of our Institute, led by William M. Rodgers III, and our February event have both been featured in previous blogs, let me say a few words about the new book and the Fed’s “Racism and the Economy” event series.

“Future of Building Wealth” Book Offers Novel Ideas

The book, “The Future of Building Wealth: Brief Essays on the Best Ideas to Build Wealth—for Everyone,” includes over 100 contributing writers featured in 63 original essays. Published in partnership with the Aspen Institute, the book aims both to document profound racial, generational, educational and gender wealth gaps in the U.S. and, especially, to offer the field’s latest and best thinking on ways to build savings and wealth for those who lack meaningful levels of it.

“The Future of Building Wealth” aims to document wealth gaps and to offer ideas on narrowing them.

The book also features many novel ways—beyond carving out savings from excess earned income—for families to generate an ownership stake in America. Ever thought about your personal data as an asset? Or how reforms to corporate consolidation can generate family wealth? Or how stock market losses can be an opportunity to build wealth for millions of low-income Americans? If not, then we invite you to read the book! It’s available for download at futureofwealth.org, and complimentary printed copies can be requested, too.

Events Add to the Racial Economic Equity Conversation

In October, St. Louis Fed President Jim Bullard (along with two other Federal Reserve banks’ presidents) participated in a Federal Reserve System event, “Racism and the Economy: Focus on the Wealth Divide.” The event was part of a year-long series that attracted several thousand participants for each event and featured prominent national experts. The Oct. 20 event focused specifically on addressing racial and ethnic wealth gaps—which remain large and haven’t changed much in a generation despite other progress. The event’s main goal was to draw attention to how racism impacted—and continues to impact—economic outcomes, and what the Fed and others can do about it. Please watch the event. I’m sure you’ll learn much, just as I did.

Please engage with our Institute for Economic Equity, read our new book, and watch the informative events in the “Racism and the Economy” series. For this is not the end of the journey, but one that continues—and one that my Fed colleagues and I hope you’ll take with us.