From the notice of a forthcoming book:
The Color of Social Security
Race, Retirement, Disability, and DisparityAuthor:Jon C. Dubin, Rutgers University, New JerseyPublished:September 2026Availability:Not yet published - available from September 2026Format:HardbackISBN:9781009858991 …The Color of Social Security traces the myriad ways and interconnected social systems in which racism has been embedded into American social security programs. Drawing on American history, Jon Dubin exposes institutionalized processes undermining racially equitable receipt of retirement and disability benefits. Examples include the 1935 Social Security Act, which excluded Black agricultural and domestic workers in order to protect the postbellum Southern racial economic and political order; the 1972 Supplemental Security Income program's exclusion of persons of color in the U.S. territories, with genesis in 125 years of racialized colonial domination; 1980s criminal justice system restrictions; systemic racial bias in disability decisions in the 1990s; disability eligibility obstacles from “race-norming” in the 2000s; and the misevaluation of Black claimants with sickle cell disease under Social Security Administration regulations since 2015. While exploring these histories, Dubin offers concrete solutions to address racial inequity and create a more equitable future.
- Traces racism through multiple social systems such as in employment, criminal justice and health care, and through the SSA's own adjudicative biases
- Provides historical contextualization, policy examination, and constitutional analysis, of racial inequity in both the social security retirement/old age and disability programs
- Outlines concrete policy and legal remedies, mitigations and recommendations for inequities identified in each chapter.
To MAGA types who feel that the only discrimination in America is against white people, I don’t care what you think. I doubt Professor Dubin does, either. Keep your hate filled opinions to yourself or to safe MAGA spaces.
