Our Approach
We are more than subject matter experts.
Our program does more than offer credit building subject matter expertise. We use the framework of Meta-Oppression as an important lens.
What is Meta-Oppression?
Defined as psychological stress resulting from dealing with protracted structural racism, meta-oppression is a theory and term coined by our Board President, Dr. Jacqueline Scott, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago. Meta-Oppression is characterized by feelings of profound resignation and despair. We often see it manifest in participants of color as aversion to the mainstream credit system–a system key to economic mobility. Our work helps these participants shift to feeling hopeful about future economic opportunities as they parlay the information, tools and support they receive from Working Credit into prime credit scores and begin to enact their financial goals.
What our clients say about our efforts to interrupt the effects of structural racism.
“Historically we [Black people] are the people most disenfranchised by not having credit at all or having bad credit. But knowing about the details of credit early on helps us to get the clarity we need to see and move forward with many other parts of our lives.”
Additional resources we lean on to educate ourselves and continue the hard work of interrupting structural racism.
Books
Rothstein, Richard The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Kendi, Ibram X. How to Be An Antiracist
DiAngelo, Robin Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm
Anderson, Carol White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
Baradaran, Mehrsa The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap
Perry, Andre Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property In America’s Black Cities
Articles:
Price, Anne Don’t Fixate on the Racial Wealth Gap, Focus on Un-Doing Its Root Cause (Insight Center)
Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, CFPB data point: Credit visible
Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, CFPB data point: Becoming credit visible
Time Magazine, Segregation and the Racial Wealth Gap
Working Credit Blog: Black Lives Matter
Working Credit Blog: The Dual Credit Market Dilemma: Working Credit Interrupts Structural Racism
Videos:
Consumer Finance Protection Bureau: Unpacking the Black Wealth Gap – Historical Lessons of Credit Discrimination
Consumer Finance Protection Bureau: Unpacking the Black Wealth Gap, Part 2
Podcasts:
Diversifying: Does it feel like the financial system is stacked against you? For many of us, it is. Especially if you’re Black or Brown, a woman, or single. In Diversifying, we explore why the traditional rules of money management no longer apply to new generations. Hosted by Delyanne Barros, better known as Delyanne The Money Coach, Diversifying demystifies and humanizes money by examining the culture we make it in and how to make it work for you.
Hidden Brain explores the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior and questions that lie at the heart of our complex and changing world.
- Money 2.0: Rewrite Your Money Story
- Money 2.0: Why We Bust Our Budgets
- Money 2.0: Emotional Currency