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Topic: Book talk on inequality and how people accept the wealth gapDate & Time: Wednesday, September 9th, 4:00–5:30pmCost: Free and open to the publicFormat: In-person panel with UC Berkeley professors, plus a reception afterReading Time: About 1 minute
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Search 'Normalizing Inequality Authors Meet Critics UC Berkeley' to find the registration page and save your free spot.
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Two UC Berkeley professors wrote a book that digs into a surprising question: why do people accept inequality even when they can see it clearly? 'Normalizing Inequality' looks at how middle-class Californians think about the growing gap between rich and poor — and how those thoughts quietly keep things the same.
Sociology professor G. Cristina Mora and African American Studies professor Tianna Paschel spent years interviewing and surveying middle-class Californians. Their findings are striking. Most people could name the systemic causes of inequality — policies that favor the wealthy, structural racism, housing displacement. But when it came to explaining their own lives and their neighbors' struggles, they fell back on personal choices and moral character instead. Racism felt acceptable because 'it's not as bad as the South.' Immigrant hardship got reframed as proof that the American Dream still works. Economic pressures on others became problems those people could solve with enough grit. The authors call this 'normalizing inequality' — the quiet mental work ordinary people do to make an unjust system feel livable. At the panel, Mora and Paschel will discuss these findings alongside three fellow UC Berkeley scholars: political scientist Desmond Jagmohan, education professor Lisa García Bedolla, and moderator Nicholas Vargas from Ethnic Studies.
You don't need to read the book before attending. Come curious and ready to listen. If the ideas spark something, look for the book afterward to go deeper. You can also bring the conversation home — talk with neighbors, family, or colleagues about how you all make sense of inequality in Houston and beyond. The same patterns the authors found in California show up in cities everywhere.
Wednesday, September 9, 4:00–5:30 p.m., followed by a reception
In person at UC Berkeley campus (check the event registration page for the exact building and room)
This event is co-sponsored by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, the School of Education, the Othering and Belonging Institute, and the Departments of Political Science and African American Studies. It is part of the Social Science Matrix Authors Meet Critics series, which regularly hosts free public discussions of new books by UC Berkeley social scientists.
California is one of the most unequal states in the country, yet many residents still hold tight to its reputation as a land of opportunity. This book — and the panel around it — explores the gap between what people know and what they actually believe. Understanding that gap is a first step toward changing it.
