Swope Health announces a new edition of its podcast, One on One with Swope Health, featuring Ebony Reed, journalist and media executive, and also a bestselling author of Fifteen Cents on the Dollar: How Americans Made the Black-White Wealth Gap.
Eric Wesson, founder and publisher of The Next Page KC, a newspaper focused on the Black community, hosts the show’s conversations with Kansas Citians about issues of importance to the community’s health and wellbeing.
In this wide-ranging conversation, Ebony describes her childhood in a “family of communicators” and how journalism and communications are an essential part of her. After receiving her degrees in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, she went on to work for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Detroit News, the Associated Press and the Wall Street Journal.
She began visiting Kansas City In 2016, with her fiancé Terez A. Paylor, a sports journalist covering the NFL. She moved to Kansas City in 2020.
Ebony described the genesis of the book as a series of conversations with her co-author Louise Story, beginning in the days after the murder of George Floyd. The conversations expanded to the economic crisis of 2008-9 and its impact on Black families. In the course of their discussions, they realized there wasn’t detailed reporting on the economic impact to Black families, explaining the origins of the Black-White wealth gap from slavery, redlining, and economic policies through to the contemporary lives of Black families today.
The book takes its name from the fact that a typical Black family has 15 cents in wealth for every $1 a typical White family has.
Ebony and her co-author have also taught a course at the Yale School of Management on Money and Race, which also addresses income gaps between races and between men and women. Since the book was published in early 2024, Ebony has been traveling the nation holding workshops and giving presentations to help people understand the Black-White wealth gap.
She notes that people tend to greatly underestimate the Black-White wealth gap, and are shocked to learn the truth revealed by the data.
The book is a collection of people’s histories, family trees, and stories as well as data, wrapped in a narrative style.
“The beginning of the Black-White wealth gap is slavery in our country,” she said. “That is people working and not being compensated; then you have hundreds of years of laws and private actions that attacked Black peoples’ ability to create wealth.” She cited examples like the G.I. Bill, which was set up to support all veterans but routinely denied benefits to Black veterans.
Today, the No. 1 driver of the wealth gap in our country is inheritance, she noted. White families frequently can provide gifts to cover downpayments on a home, or college education, or to address obstacles. She adds that bankruptcy policy holds the gap in place – noting Black families are less likely to have debts forgiven than Whites. The discussion touches on many complicated issues surrounding Black wealth, including home ownership, financial literacy, inequitable incomes, and notes the impacts of these issues on Black health and longevity.
In addition to her work as an author and journalist, Ebony serves as the chief strategy officer for The Marshall Project, a national non-profit and nonpartisan news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system. She also serves on the board of United WE. Earlier this year, Ebony appeared with Swope Health CEO Jeron Ravin at a town hall discussing the Black-White wealth gap.
Find the podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MHqNGNi2sKI
