In the past couple years, the economy has become the focus of media coverage, politics and national debate. Movements like Occupy Wall Street brought issues of economic disparity and class to the center stage. But where and how does race fit into all this? Maggie Anderson, the CEO and cofounder of The Empowerment Experiment, decided in 2009 to only “buy black.” In “Our Black Year: One Family’s Quest to Buy Black in America’s Racially Divided Economy”, which she co-wrote with the Pulitzer Prize—winning journalist Ted Gregory, she outlines the economic disadvantages of black-owned businesses and discusses how race divides the U.S. economy.