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April 1, 2008 Contact: Jennifer McNulty (831) 459-2495; jmcnulty@ucsc.edu Taking on the racial wealth divide April 23 with activist and author Meizhu Lui
For every dollar owned by the average white family in the United States, the average family of color has less than a dime, according to activist and author Meizhu Lui, who will discuss the U.S. racial wealth divide during a free public lecture at UC Santa Cruz. Lui, former executive director of United for a Fair Economy, will propose realistic policy options for reducing the wealth gap during her talk titled, "The Color of Wealth: Race, Economic Justice, and the Future of America.” Her talk will take place on Wednesday, April 23, at 7 p.m. in the College 9 and 10 Multipurpose Room at UCSC. Admission is free; parking near the event will be available for $2 per vehicle. "With the presidential campaign heating up around the lagging economy and candidate Barack Obama’s March 18th speech on institutional discrimination and the detrimental impact of policies that have prevented asset building among African Americans, Lui’s visit could not be more timely," said Heather Bullock, an associate professor of psychology at UCSC and director of the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community (CJTC), which is bringing Lui to campus as its ninth annual spring speaker. "Meizhu Lui works tirelessly to increase awareness of the devastating consequences of wealth and income inequality in the United States," said Bullock. "Her work with United for a Fair Economy helped bring national attention to issues of economic injustice and the racial underpinnings of the gap between rich and poor." Lui is the co-author of The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide (2006), a book lauded by noted historian and social critic Howard Zinn as a "double assault" on economic and racial inequality. She served as a member of the Center for American Progress' National Initiative to End Poverty and is a coauthor of the influential report, From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half (2007). Lui also appears in the documentary series Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?, which is currently airing nationwide on PBS. A self-described “professional troublemaker,” Lui was a hospital food-service worker and AFSCME activist for 20 years, becoming the first Asian American president of a local union in Massachusetts. In 1993, Lui became an organizer for Health Care for All, building a multiethnic coalition that challenged Boston’s hospitals to fund community-driven health projects. From 2002-2007, Lui was the executive director of United for a Fair Economy, a national nonprofit organization that raises awareness of how concentrated wealth and power undermine the economy, corrupt democracy, deepen the racial divide, and tear communities apart. For more information about Lui's visit, contact the CJTC at (831) 459-5743 or send e-mail to cjtc@ucsc.edu. The CJTC is a progressive applied research center that focuses on equity, diversity, and social and economic justice.
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