Racial Wealth Gap the Focus of Oct. 30 Lender Center Event in Washington

In Washington, D.C., the population is booming, but rent and housing costs are spiking and wages for working-class and lower-income workers are stagnating. Those factors can create economic disparity and hardship, which makes this location an especially relevant setting for a roundtable discussion about ways to help resolve the racial wealth gap in America.

“The Lender Conversation: Interrogating the Racial Wealth Gap,” is planned for Monday, Oct. 30, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the National Press Club, with a reception to follow. Guests are asked to register to attend the public event, which is sponsored by the Lender Center for Social Justice and MetLife Foundation.

Panelists include researchers from Syracuse University and other academic institutions who will discuss how housing availability and costs, transportation and labor issues exacerbate the racial wealth gap. They will also offer solutions to help offset its negative economic effects.

The event is among several community-based academic gatherings and interdisciplinary research initiatives supported by a three-year, $2.7 million grant from MetLife Foundation, allowing Lender Center researchers to examine the racial wealth gap’s various dimensions.

Syracuse University panelists include Kristen Barnes, associate dean for faculty research and professor in the College of Law; Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, associate professor of food studies in the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics; Marcelle Haddix, associate provost for strategic initiatives and Lender Center for Social Justice co-founder; and J. Coley, Lender Center postdoctoral fellow.

Joining them are Jhacova Williams, assistant professor of public administration and policy at American University, and Dan Cronan, assistant professor of landscape architecture at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Lender Center interim director and co-founder Kendall Phillips and Kira Reed, the center’s senior faculty research associate, are coordinating roundtable arrangements.

We spoke with Haddix to learn more about the event and how Lender Center research efforts and community-building activities are generating new ideas about the economic and opportunity gap.