Black businesses lag behind businesses of all other racial groups in every measure of success. Is it necessary – or even possible – for the black community to sustain its own economy? Author Maggie Anderson describes her year-long Empowerment Experiment to "buy black" and how while trying to inspire blacks to economically mobilize, she encountered a community that refused to support its own. Meanwhile, sociology professor Thomas Shapiro warns that blacks are failing in asset accumulation and homeownership, to the point of negating gains in employment and income. Drawing on economic research, social history, surveys, interviews, and their own personal experiences, these authors show moderator Candelaria Silva how racial inequality is transmitted across generations and pinpoint why the black economy continues to suffer.