How The Racial Wealth Gap Shows Up In All Areas of Life In The United States

This week, Maggie talks with financial experts Kassandra Dasent and Sandy Smith, about the racial wealth gap in the United States, and how it shows up in every area of life for Black folks and other people of color. In this episode, they touch on issues such as redlining, COVID-19, healthcare disparities, and more. If you want to learn more about the racial disparities when it comes to financial wellness and opportunity in the United States, as well as how we can start changing the system, this episode for you.  Related Links:Elevate CommunityElevate WorkshopsRacial disparities in COVID-19 crisisWhat is redlining?What is white flight?Harvard study on racial bias in the job search -- Kassandra Dasent is the Founder of BridgeTech Enterprises; offering IT/software project management consulting services, a financial wellness engineer, and a speaker. Focusing on how emotional awareness can have a direct and lasting impact on one’s relationship with money, Kassandra provides her audiences with practical solutions to help them achieve holistic wealth. She has been featured in numerous media outlets including Forbes, US News & World Report, Business Insider, Fast Company, Travel Noire, Yahoo! Finance and News, and Glamour. Follow Kassandra on Twitter and Instagram @KassandraDasent.  -- Sandy Smith has been a personal finance blogger since January 1, 2009 when she resolved to get out of debt, or die trying.  No, no, that was 50 Cent.  At age 29 she was frankly tired of paying living paycheck-to-paycheck and feeling as if she would never get ahead financially. The Cheapass Blog, as it was then known, was born out of sheer frustration with the hope of paying down a $120,000 debt much faster than the average debtor without filing for bankruptcy. From years of writing on the Yes, I Am Cheap blog, Sandy has tested numerous common techniques for getting out of debt including: debt consolidation, debt management plans, debt negotiation, working from home, the snowball technique, the envelope system, no spend challenges, extreme couponing and just about every other personal finance trick in the book.  She likes to refer to herself as the “guinea pig” of debt reduction techniques. On January 1, 2013, Sandy resolved to see just how much she could reduce her debt in a two year period.  By December 31, 2014, Sandy successfully reduced her debt by over $50,000 – all during a volatile period of employment for her.  During those two years, she was unemployed for six months before working as a temp for ten months before converting to a full-time employee.  This achievement led Yahoo! Finance to name Sandy’s story the #3 most inspiring personal finance stories of 2014.   Now a Certified Financial Education instructor, Sandy is dedicated to helping others put together their own formula for financial freedom. Sandy is also a Senior Certified HR Professional; holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from St. John’s University and M.B.A. from Devry University’s Keller Graduate School.