A Conversation with Dedrick Asante-Muhammad About How the Racial Wealth Gap is a Threat to American Prosperity and Democracy

Dedrick Asante-Muhammad is the guest on this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show. He is Senior Fellow, Racial Wealth Divide at Prosperity Now and one of the principle authors of the much-discussed report, The Road to Zero Wealth: How the Racial Wealth Divide is Hollowing Out America’s Middle Class.

Dedrick has also held senior leadership positions with the NAACP and the National Action Network.

On this week's podcast Dedrick and Chauncey share their personal reflections on race, family, and upward mobility, how class identity is incorrectly depicted in American popular culture as well as the perils and allure of TV programs such as Blackish and The Cosby Show. Dedrick also explains how the racial wealth gap is a threat to American prosperity (and democracy) for all people on both sides of the color line.

In this week's episode, Chauncey advises caution for all the Democrats who are celebrating a win in the Pennsylvania special election and warns the public to not buy into the silly narrative that Donald Trump is somehow weakened by all of the supposed "chaos" in the White House.

During this week's podcast Chauncey also reads a story about the working poor and a wonderful woman who worked for Disney World and could not afford a proper place to live--she was found dead in the car which served as her home.

At the end of this week's podcast Chauncey shares some fun and bizarre stories about a gang of little people who robbed homes in Boston and how a man tried to seduce a gorilla named "Big George" at a zoo. And of course, Chauncey laments the end of Toys R Us.

This episode with Dedrick Asante-Muhammad can be downloaded from Libsyn and also listened to here.

The Chauncey DeVega Show is available on Itunes, Spotify and at Stitcher.