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Betsy Leondar-Wright
Co-author of The Color of Wealth:
The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide

“‘ America is a meritocracy’, my father always told me. The harder he worked, the more money he got: clear cause and effect.
But my father had a legacy that he couldn’t see, a legacy he only got because he is white. He was a World War II-era veteran, and bought his first house with a Veterans Administration mortgage, which almost all veterans of color were denied. His parents got Social Security old-age benefits when the program excluded domestic and agricultural workers, which meant that most people of color did not qualify.
Of course effort and talent make a difference in climbing the staircase to prosperity. But for most white men, the staircase has been an escalator powered by public assistance. Historically, for people of color, the escalator has been broken or has run backwards.”
- Betsy Leondar-Wright

In The Color of Wealth, Betsy Leondar-Wright wrote about the history of government advantages given to white families like her own, and the responsibility of white people to work for racial justice. She also co-authored United for a Fair Economy’s three annual State of the Dream reports on the racial wealth divide in income, assets, poverty and unemployment.

Betsy has been the Communications Director of United for a Fair Economy since 1998. She has spoken about economic inequality on CNN, Air America and hundreds of local and syndicated radio shows. Her op-eds have appeared in the San Jose Mercury News, Tallahassee Democrat, Daily Corinthian, Topeka Capital-Journal, and others.

Betsy’s book, Class Matters: Cross-Class Alliance Building for Middle-Class Activists (New Society Publishers, 2005), is excerpted on the web at www.ClassMatters.org . Her article “Who Is the Elite?” appeared in Inequality Matters (New Press, 2005).

Before coming to UFE, Betsy directed two organizations, the Massachusetts Human Services Coalition and the Anti-Displacement Project. She has also worked as a program coordinator at Women For Economic Justice.

Betsy’s public presentations are never as tame as simply a book reading. She injects audience participation and moral passion into every engagement. She has led Color of Wealth workshops for the United Association of Labor Education, the Boston Social Forum, UFE’s Defending the Dream conference, and the national Inequality Matters conference, where her keynote speech got a standing ovation.