How the video game Dot's Home was adapted for the stage

"Dot's Home Live" has been performed in Detroit in an effort to share the game's housing rights story with the community.
The video game Dot's Home has been downloaded more than half a million times on phones and computers. But co-creator Christina Rosales knew that games are often played alone, and she wanted to bring the production to the “next level.”
David Brancaccio/Marketplace

Video game Dot's Home brings a story of housing injustice to life

The interactive game lets players follow one family's account of disadvantage and discrimination through the generations.
"We wanted to tell a multigenerational story, because when you think about housing disadvantage, it is cumulative," says Christina Rosales, above, co-creator of Dot's Home.
David Brancaccio/Marketplace

The racial wealth gap, 60 years since the Civil Rights Act

A new report from the National Urban League highlights progress, but also underscores how elusive economic equality is.
"We've seen some closures in the education gap. But there's still a gap — the health care gap, the economic gap. In social justice, which covers the criminal justice system, we've actually seen a loss of ground in a significant way," says Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League.
Courtesy National Urban League

Buying a house means more opportunities for this first-time owner

Jan 31, 2024
"As a result of me being a homeowner ... if I need to take money out, I can do that," says Monique Coleman of West Virginia.
Monique Coleman and her daughter, Zoey, outside their home in Charles Town, West Virginia.
Courtesy Monique Coleman

If reparations aren't politically viable, what's the next best thing?

Jan 5, 2024
Scholars say local action directed at improving access to housing, health care and education are more likely to pass than cash payments.
Many Black families were excluded from suburbs that were rapidly growing in the '50s and '60s.
Illustration: Dylan Miettinen/Marketplace | Photo: Courtesy USC Libraries. “Dick” Whittington Photography Collection

California debates who should be eligible for reparations for slavery

Jan 4, 2024
Recommendations start "with those folks who are clearly descendants of 250 years of wage theft in this country," says Sen. Steven Bradford.
Illustration: Dylan Miettinen/Marketplace | Photos: filo and JasonDoiy/Getty Images

2024 will be a big year for the reparations debate in California

Jan 3, 2024
After a state task force issued a nearly 1,100-page report in 2023, lawmakers are starting to look at reparations policy options.
California State Sen. Steven Bradford is one of nine task force members who issued a report on reparations last year.
Illustration: Dylan Miettinen/Marketplace | Photo: Courtesy California State Senate

For public good, not for profit.

First minority-owned public stock exchange looks to make its debut

It's called the Dream Exchange and it plans to offer access to the capital markets for small and mid-cap companies.
Dream Exchange founder and CEO, Joe Cecala, is looking to expand access to capital markets through a new exchange.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Black homeownership climbed early in the pandemic. Is progress stalling?

Jun 19, 2023
Higher mortgage rates could disproportionately hurt Black homebuyers.
Historically low mortgage rates lifted homeownership across racial and ethnic groups. But those rates have more than doubled since 2021.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The consequences of underestimating the racial wealth gap

Ivy Onyeador of Northwestern University discusses why Americans overestimate the progress we've made toward economic equality.
Many Americans don't understand the true scale of economic inequality. That can lead to misperceptions of what needs to be done, says Ivy Onyeador, professor at Northwestern University.
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