Blackonomics - by Sonari Glinton (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

In Blackonomics, veteran business reporter Sonari Glinton upends conventional wisdom about the economy by exposing how racism harms it and revealing how equal access to markets is the only way to save it.

Sonari Glinton has often been the only Black man in the room reporting on major news events. Covering business for NPR, he noticed how economists love to talk about the free market, but how can a market be free if so many people are not allowed to participate fully in it?

Blackonomics takes on economic tropes and turns them on their head, simply by adding a Black perspective. His book reveals:

• How companies like McDonald's and Toyota finally found success when they decided to no longer ignore Black consumers but embrace them.
• Why the sports world is actually among the least open to Blacks.
• How the data shows that Black women business owners are in fact the best bets on Wall Street.

Glinton takes readers on a journey from the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies to the floors of the auto factories of Detroit, and beyond. His book shares essential stories that are both enlightening and entertaining, to show why racism is bad for business, and how diversity has always been the hidden key to success. This book will give people the information and the courage to get off their butts and help change our economy and society--for everyone's benefit.

Review Quotes

"In this book, as in so much of what he has written over the years, Glinton opens the reader's eyes to the intertwining reality of race and the economy. As he puts it so succinctly, "Racism is not just bad; it's inefficient." Glinton's book is a tour-de-force look at the unseen face of the economy and how we so often misperceive and misunderstand the role that race plays in making it work, and not work."
--Nina Totenberg, NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent and New York Times bestselling author of Dinners with Ruth

"I've always found it ironic that "being in the black" signifies financial health, yet racist policies in the U.S. have systematically locked Black Americans out of building generational wealth. Sonari Glinton's book takes a deep dive into why excluding Black communities from full economic participation is not only morally wrong but will continue to be, as Glinton writes, America's "Achilles' heel.'"
--Michelle Singletary, personal finance columnist for The Washington Post and author of The 21-Day Financial Fast

About the Author

Sonari Glinton is an award-winning journalist, a contributor to NPR's Planet Money, and a columnist for ForbesBLK. One of the most recognized voices in public radio, he began producing and directing Chicago and national editions of All Things Considered before becoming an NPR business correspondent. His work has been featured on Fresh Air and This American Life, and in The New York Times and Slate, earning a Murrow Award for investigative reporting. He lives in Los Angeles.