Building Bridges: Examining Race and Privilege in Community Economic Development: Introductory Overview

The country has been in economic recovery since the Great Recession in 2007. Home prices have since stabilized after the mortgage and foreclosure crisis that followed the Recession. In late 2017, the federal government passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, leading to a surge in corporate earnings. As of the time of this writing, major stock indicators are at all-time highs, and interest rates are low. But corporate indicators and interest rates do not paint the entire picture. Most of the economic recovery is in affluent, predominately white parts of the country, while distressed areas inhabited by people of color have been overlooked. While economic change may have come to certain neighborhoods, what has also changed are the racial demographics, increased housing prices, and access to health foods, along with the exodus of long-term residents. Wages are stagnant despite near zero unemployment, public schools are more segregated than ever, and the racial wealth gap widens. Patrick Sharkey calls this juxtaposition an uneasy peace. At the start of the new year, law professors gathered at the 2019 Association of American Law Schools ( AALS ) Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, to discuss this uneasy peace and find solutions to address the systematic racial disparities that are barriers to achieving economic justice