In Funding White Supremacy, Robert B. Williams shows how current federal policies have perpetuated and expanded the racial wealth gap in the United States. Through the lens of stratification economics, Williams explores how twelve tax expenditures buried in the federal tax code shower over $1 trillion annually to mostly wealthy, white households, while federal estate and gift taxes have been systematically dismantled. The book reveals how these policies originated in a period of overt racial oppression and have evolved in the modern, post-Civil Rights era, not only contributing to the expanding racial wealth gaps over the last fifty years but how they have also fostered the growth of white wealth at the expense of Black wealth. This book is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand how federal policies contribute to the vast and expanding racial wealth gap at the core of the American system of white supremacy.

‘This brilliant book comes about precisely when its title is likely to invite bans and derision from the ruling elites in the United States. The unimpeachable documentation and careful analysis of the origins and roots of racist federal and state tax policies will be eye-openers for serious scholars examining wealth inequality.’

Samuel Myers, Jr. - Professor, Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota

‘Williams brings both intellectual gravitas and ethical urgency to his book … His analysis contributes meaningfully to debates about how class-based instruments such as taxation can operate as vehicles of racial subordination when embedded within historically unequal structures. In doing so, the book makes a sustained effort to address the intersection of race and class analytically rather than collapsing one into the other.’

Zheng Wang - Critical Inquiry

‘… Williams argues that the sources of the racial wealth gap are deeply rooted in American history, and that this gap has been perpetuated and exacerbated by government policies that have disadvantaged Black wealth accumulation and supported white wealth accumulation … Williams makes extensive and effective use of quantitative evidence, and explains his argument clearly and accessibly … Highly recommended.’

J. L. Rosenbloom Source: Choice

‘By illuminating the ongoing complicity of federal policies in perpetuating structural racism, Williams reconfigures prevailing understandings of racial inequality and extends scholarship on racial capitalism and wealth disparities. His analysis contributes meaningfully to debates about how class-based instruments such as taxation can operate as vehicles of racial subordination when embedded within historically unequal structures. In doing so, the book makes a sustained effort to address the intersection of race and class analytically rather than collapsing one into the other.’

Zheng Wang Source: The University of Chicago Press Journals