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Meizhu Lui
Co-author of The Color of Wealth:
The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide

“Like snowballs rolling down a hill, many of the families and communities of white America have been gathering wealth from generation to generation. Disadvantages also accumulate. People of color, lacking inheritances that enable them to go to college or buy a home, are stuck on an intergenerational economic treadmill, constantly struggling to make ends meet.”
– Meizhu Lui, “The Snowball and the Treadmill”

As Executive Director of United for a Fair Economy, Meizhu has honed UFE’s messages and broadened its reach, tapping into the concerns of grassroots constituencies, including those who do not speak English as their first language.

She has co-authored three annual “State of the Dream” reports published by UFE on Martin Luther King Day. These reports identify racial economic disparities in wealth which explain the persistence of the race gap and suggest policies that would move us towards greater equality. Articles by Meizhu have appeared in the Wealth Inequality Reader (Dollars & Sense, 2004) Inequality Matters (The New Press, 2005), and in Yes!, Orion, and Social Policy magazines, as well as in Black Commentator, the online news source.

A self-described “troublemaker,” Meizhu was a hospital food service worker and AFSCME activist for 20 years, and became the first Asian President of a local union in Massachusetts. The local tackled tough issues like maintaining affirmative action gains during lay-offs. In 1993 Meizhu became an organizer for Health Care For All, building a multi-ethnic coalition that challenged Boston’s hospitals to fund community driven health projects.

Meizhu serves on the Center for American Progress’ National Initiative to End Poverty. She is a Trustee of the Hyams Foundation in Boston, Massachusetts. She is a long time member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Her work in Boston has been honored by the YWCA, the Immigrant Workers’ Resource Center, Mass Senior Action Council, the Boston Women’s Fund, and the Big Sisters Association. She received the Randolph-Rustin Award for the Education of African American Workers from the Labor Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

Meizhu has given plenary presentations at conferences of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, United Methodist Women, the National Coalition of Asian Pacific American Community Development, and the national Inequality Matters conference, among others.

Meizhu is a lively and funny speaker who makes economic trends come alive with stories and metaphors from everyday life. She radiates hope that racial and economic justice could be our future.