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We
at Roosevelt are mourning the continued assault on Black lives, from
COVID-19, police brutality, and beyond. We stand in solidarity with
you.
How Economic Assumptions
Uphold Racist Systems
As anti-racist protests continue
nationwide, Black economists are turning a mirror on the profession
itself, spotlighting the assumptions and practices that have long
reinforced anti-Blackness. “The ‘free market’ does not inherently
deliver equitable outcomes,” Omidyar Network principal and Roosevelt
board member Joelle Gamble writes
for Dissent.
“Racism is rational when it upholds institutional arrangements
that preserve white wealth and economic power—a point that applies
just as much to public health and police violence as it does to the
labor market. And economists who want to challenge racism must
recognize the role of history, power, and institutions in shaping
behavior.” To change the paradigm, economic institutions must confront
their own entrenched racism—including by increasing Black
representation among economics students, professors, and journal
editors and by addressing the racial discrimination and gatekeeping
Black economists face in a field dominated by white
men.
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The story of a paper:
For NPR’s The Indicator, Michigan State University economist
and Roosevelt board member Lisa Cook details her decade-long efforts
to publish a paper on the effects of violence on Black inventors and
patents from 1870 to 1940; as she explains, white journal referees
dismissed the topic as niche and irrelevant. “My view is that we are
really trying to change what it means to be an economist, what an
economist looks like, who can participate in the profession. Because
we’re just missing out on a lot of talent and a lot of new ideas—a lot
of new ideas that could be relevant,” Cook says. Listen
here, and read
the full paper.
- Race, class, and the
climate crisis: As Roosevelt Director of Climate Policy and
Green New Deal architect Rhiana Gunn-Wright tells the MIT
Technology Review, the climate crisis and racial justice are
inextricable: “It’s not just an issue of emissions. It’s an issue of
the systems that have allowed an industry that essentially poisons
people to continue, and to do so even as it further and further
imperils our survival, both as a nation and as a globe. It comes down
to issues of race and class and place.” Read
on.
- The stock market is not
the economy: “The
wealthiest 10 percent of Americans own 84 percent
of stocks. Half of American families don’t have a penny invested in
the stock market, and that includes 401Ks and other retirement
savings,” Groundwork Collaborative Executive Director and Roosevelt
Fellow Michael Linden writes for USA Today. “This is even
lower among communities
of color, with only 36 percent of Black families
and 37 percent of Latin families owning stock.” Read
more.
COVID-19 and the Racial
Wealth Gap
“Small businesses, particularly
Black and brown ones, have been slipping through the cracks of the
federal response,” Roosevelt Fellow Darrick Hamilton
tells
the Washington Post. “The number-one hurdle is capital itself—a
racial wealth gap where the typical Black household has 10 cents on
the dollar for the typical white household. It’s an overwhelming
hurdle rooted in an unjust history.” As Roosevelt
Senior Fellow Sandy Darity elaborated on
WBUR, “it's
important to understand that the racial wealth gap is a consequence of
American policies. It is not a consequence of any form of
dysfunctional behavior on the part of Black [people] or poor
decision-making on the part of Black [people] . . . And so we have to
look specifically at the trajectory of American social policy with
respect to race to understand why the wealth gap exists.” For more
from Darity, watch PBS
NewsHour’s “Race Matters: America in
Crisis.”
- A more equitable
response: As Roosevelt experts have argued, FedAccounts
and postal
banking are two options that would vastly improve
the inclusiveness and effectiveness of COVID-19 policy responses; this
week, Roosevelt Fellow Mehrsa Baradaran testified about them before
the House Financial Services Committee. Watch
here.
 The Power of
Youth
“We have seen youth be hugely
effective mobilizers. Youth can also be—must be—policy advocates and
policymakers,” Roosevelt Vice President of Development Juliette Kang
Stableski and Roosevelt Network National Director Katie Kirchner write
for Nonprofit
Quarterly. “America’s
youth can help lead the fight to dismantle the structural barriers
that hold them–and us—back from realizing our power as individuals and
members of our society. And philanthropy must invest in youth
accordingly.” Read
more.
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