As a whole, the U.S. tax system (federal, state and local) since 1980 has served more and more to increase racialized wealth inequality. The tax system is today operating to entrench the system of advantage based on race that centuries of racial exploitation and unequal access to wealth created....

In this essay, we describe and analyze one specific policy proposal—Universal Basic Income (UBI)—that takes an interest-convergent approach to closing the racial wealth gap. In Part I, we provide an overview of the U.S. status quo of extreme economic and wealth inequality, which...