In this short book I focus on the rising inequality in American society and on the need for a progressive, multiracial political coalition to combat it. A large, strong, and organized political constituency is essential for the development and implementation of policies that will reverse the trends of the rising inequality and ease the burdens of ordinary families.

Political power is disproportionately concentrated among the elite, most advantaged segments of society. As discussed in chapter 3, the monetary, trade, and tax policies of recent years have arisen from and, in turn, deepened this power imbalance. And, although elite members of...

As the new millennium dawns, the movement for racial equality needs a new political strategy. That strategy must appeal to America’s broad multiracial population while addressing the many problems that afflict disadvantaged minorities and redressing the legacy of historic racism in America. But in the last decade, the nation seems to have become more divided on issues pertaining to race. Affirmative action programs are under heavy assault, and broad public sympathy for those minority individuals who have suffered the most from racial exclusion has waned.

Today, it seems to me imperative that the concerns of both the larger American population...

Despite African Americans’ strong focus on the effects of racial discrimination in domestic U.S. employment, their economic fate is inextricably connected with the structure and functioning of a much broader, globally influenced modern economy. Racial bias continues to be an important factor that aggravates black employment problems. Nonetheless, it is important to be aware of thenonracialeconomic forces that have sharply increased joblessness and declining real wages among many African Americans in the last several decades. As the black economist Vivian Henderson argued over two decades ago, racism put blacks in their economic place, but changes in the modern...

As the new global economy creates growing inequality in the labor market and increasing economic and emotional stresses for ordinary families, including those where the working mother is the only parent, many of the policies and actions of the government do more to aggravate than alleviate their economic woes. I have in mind trade policies that facilitate the pursuit of cheap labor in the global marketplace, monetary policies that elevate real interest rates and thereby lower employment rates, tax policies that favor the truly wealthy, and partisan opposition to programs of public investment and national health insurance.

The University of...

In the face of growing attacks on programs of “racial preference,” some analysts, including those who support multiracial coalition building, have called for a shift from an affirmative action policy based on race to one based on economic class or financial need. In a thoughtful book supporting class-based affirmative action programs, Richard D. Kahlenberg argues that preferences in hiring or school admissions should benefit only the economically disadvantaged, regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, or sexual orientation.¹ For Kahlenberg, only a class-based affirmative action program would correct society’s injustices and provide genuine individual opportunity. While eliminating benefits for advantaged minorities, it...

Adequate political solutions to the global economic problems confronting the majority of Americans will not be found until white, black, Latino, Asian, and Native Americans begin thinking more about what they have in common and less about their differences. In order to clear the path for the formation of a national, progressive, multiracial political coalition, proponents of social equality must pursue policies that unite rather than divide racial groups.

The idea that diverse racial groups can work together to pursue mutual goals is not taken seriously by many Americans because of the perception that racial friction is an unavoidable fact...