The Political Economy of Racism
The Persistence of Anti-Blackness in the United States
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 5. December 2025
Book
Hardback
348 pages
978-1-5095-4708-1 (ISBN)
Description
Why does racial inequality in America persist? In this important textbook, Michelle Holder and Jeannette Wicks-Lim answer this question by introducing readers to the innovative field of stratification economics.
Stratification economics offers an antidote to conventional economics' hyper-focus on individuals and disregard for how politics shapes the economy. It spotlights how groups - such as racial groups - compete to gain favorable positions in society through political and economic domination. The book fuses stratification economics with intersectional theory to illuminate how gender and ethnicity intertwine with racial oppression. Holder and Wicks-Lim argue that anti-Black racism developed and persists because it protects the interests of a politically dominant social group: White Americans. This argument is demonstrated across multiple arenas: education, employment, wealth, and the criminal legal system. Policy intervention - through government action spurred by social movements - is necessary for achieving racial equity.
Stratification economics offers an antidote to conventional economics' hyper-focus on individuals and disregard for how politics shapes the economy. It spotlights how groups - such as racial groups - compete to gain favorable positions in society through political and economic domination. The book fuses stratification economics with intersectional theory to illuminate how gender and ethnicity intertwine with racial oppression. Holder and Wicks-Lim argue that anti-Black racism developed and persists because it protects the interests of a politically dominant social group: White Americans. This argument is demonstrated across multiple arenas: education, employment, wealth, and the criminal legal system. Policy intervention - through government action spurred by social movements - is necessary for achieving racial equity.
Reviews / Votes
"Holder and Wicks-Lim's exceptional volume provides a long overdue reckoning with the central role of anti-Blackness in the US economy. The Political Economy of Racism challenges popular mythology about racial outcomes by providing a theoretically sophisticated and empirically grounded analysis of the history of anti-Black racism and its persistence in stratifying the US into a racial order that provides structural advantages on the basis of Whiteness and disadvantages of Blackness. As a beacon of light at the end of a very dark tunnel into which the US is rapidly moving."Nina Banks, Bucknell University
"This is a landmark publication in stratification economics - an approach that examines socioeconomic and wealth inequality within and between social groups. From this perspective racial groups differ according to their access to resources, not biogenetic characteristics. It is a must-read for a wide audience: an undergraduate introduction, a reference text for graduate students, an important source for activists and policymakers, a guide for theorists, and it provides for general readers a highly informative text on inequality."
Patrick L. Mason, University of Massachusetts Amherst
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 232 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
635 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5095-4708-1 (9781509547081)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Michelle Holder | Jeannette Wicks-Lim
The Political Economy of Racism
The Persistence of Anti-Blackness in the United States
E-Book
01/2026
1st Edition
Wiley
€18.99
Available for download
Michelle Holder | Jeannette Wicks-Lim
The Political Economy of Racism
The Persistence of Anti-Blackness in the United States
Book
approx. 12/2025
1st Edition
Polity Press
€25.50
Not yet published
Persons
Michelle Holder is Professor of Economics at John Jay College, City University of New York.
Jeannette Wicks-Lim is Research Professor at the Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Jeannette Wicks-Lim is Research Professor at the Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Content
Acknowledgments
List of Figures and Tables
Part One: How We Use Stratification Economics to Analyze Anti-Blackness in the United States
1 Introduction
2 The Construction of Race and the Origins of Racism in the United States
3 Afro-Latinxs and Anti-Blackness
4 An Intersectional Approach to Stratification Economics
Part Two: Demonstrating How Anti-Blackness Stratifies the U.S. Economy
Primer to Part Two
5 Education: Unequal Access, Unequal Outcomes
6 Unemployment, Occupational Crowding, Wage Inequality And Anti-Blackness in the Labor Market
7 Wealth and Anti-Blackness: The Case of Black Women
8 The Criminal Legal System: Hardening the Racial Divide
9 Conclusion
Notes
References
Index
List of Figures and Tables
Part One: How We Use Stratification Economics to Analyze Anti-Blackness in the United States
1 Introduction
2 The Construction of Race and the Origins of Racism in the United States
3 Afro-Latinxs and Anti-Blackness
4 An Intersectional Approach to Stratification Economics
Part Two: Demonstrating How Anti-Blackness Stratifies the U.S. Economy
Primer to Part Two
5 Education: Unequal Access, Unequal Outcomes
6 Unemployment, Occupational Crowding, Wage Inequality And Anti-Blackness in the Labor Market
7 Wealth and Anti-Blackness: The Case of Black Women
8 The Criminal Legal System: Hardening the Racial Divide
9 Conclusion
Notes
References
Index