More than likely the United States will never be one nation for liberty and justice for all. Everyday, people are divided into race, class and gender, but wealth is also added into this division.

Rose Brewer, professor of African American and African studies at the University of Minnesota, co-wrote a book that looks deeply into the wealth divide of five different racialized groups. The Color of Wealth: The Story behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide lays out the obstacles for Asian Americans, African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans by government actions or inactions. The book also looks at details that have boosted the white population’s wealth status through public policy.

At Coffman Memorial Union Bookstore on Wednesday Oct. 4, Brewer had a book signing discussing her book and her personal experiences. At first glance, it was just another book review but ended with a crowded audience of all races who were intrigued by her words. Dressed all in black and hair tied up, Brewer talked with strength and pride as she began to explain where she came from and why her research for the book is so important.

“I always go back to Tulsa, Okla. where I was nurtured and where I was reared,” Brewer says. “That is where the seeds of activism were planted.”

Brewer grew up in Tulsa where deep racial inequality continued after the racial terrorism of 1921, she says. The state of Oklahoma incorporated the racial practices of Jim Crow: segregated schools, housing and public accommodations. A prosperous entrepreneurial sector called Greenwood emerged in North Tulsa, but the majority of black Tulsans worked in domestic fields and poor-paying manual labor, Brewer says.

“I grew up in the caldron of racism but also, in the midst a community that expected much from her children, believed in us,” Brewer says. “That is the context of my birth and the trajectory from which I come to write this book collaboratively.”

The book addresses wealth and equality among different racial groups and each author gives their unique history with deep rationality to each other. As with Brewer, the other co-authors each described their personal experiences in the sections regarding their own race and wealth history. Also, each author has a connection with United for a Fair Economy, an organization that over the years has issued reports and briefings on wealth and equality in the United States. Their work for UFE is how the book came to be.

The book talks about the United States as a whole, but Brewer brought the thought of racial wealth divide closer to home. On Oct. 3, 2006, a report was released about the Twin Cities that shows one of the highest white home ownership ratios in a major U.S city with about 78 percent in contrast to black homeownership at 29 percent. “That makes us 45th in the nation close to Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, which are the states that have been historically at the bottom of equity, income and wealth divide,” Brewer says. These statistics were not put in the book but are some of the issues the authors are addressing.

Statistics also show that for every dollar possessed by the average white family in the U.S., the average family of color has less than one dime. For centuries there were barriers put up by law, by constitution, discrimination and violence against participating in government wealth building programs that were beneficial to whites.

To reach racial wealth equality, it’s important to first understand the roots of the racial wealth divide. Wealth is a better indicator of inequality within society than talking about race or class, Brewer says.

At the same time, we have a difficult time talking about wealth. The median wealth statistics for median net worth, which is the mid-point where half the population is above or below, show quite a discrepancy. In 2001, whites’ median net worth in the United States was $120,900, and for blacks it was $17,100.

“Wealth in this country is passed on generationally,” Brewer says. Depending on the race, ancestors set up the lives of their forbearers. Homesteaders gave land to their future families, whereas slaves were unable to homestead land like Europeans.

The Native American, Asian American and Latino population also have had their struggles when compared to white wealth and success. Between 1960 and 1980, Native Americans faced difficulties with hunting and fishing rights by commercial sportsmen. A campaign against Indian fishing rights was expressed in terms of sportsmen interest and environmental protection. They blamed Indians for smaller fish runs that were actually caused by normal fish patterns and stream pollution by corporations.

The Latino population, which is an umbrella term that includes Puerto Ricans and Cubans, is a story of land and labor expropriation. Land owned by Mexican Americans was lost after the Mexican American War but was protected under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and U.S. law. Congress later ratified the treaty and the treaty was omitted. In other words, the Mexican American land was no longer theirs even after the treaty said it would protect their land.

Asian Americans also had land and law problems. The first land restriction for Asians occurred as early as 1857, when the Chinese were prohibited by law from exercising mining claims in several western states, Brewer read. These groups of color have all been penalized for their race, and share similar histories of inequality.