Friends,

Today we deal with one of the oldest and most intransigent sources of inequality — systemic racism — and explore the ways to deal with it.

I’m delighted to be reposting the important lecture of David C. Wilson, Dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy. Dean Wilson’s research on voter identification laws, political rights for felons, sexual harassment, gay marriage, and workplace discrimination could not be more timely and important. His latest book, Racial Resentment in the Political Mind, was recently published by the University of Chicago Press. 

The questions to be addressed this week are: How have trends in wealth and income inequalities developed across racial groups? How do we remedy systemic racism? What are some examples? What policies can actually eliminate these gaps? What institutions would have to be created, reformed, or eliminated entirely?

Recommended readings (just click on the link):

• Eduardo Porter, “Black Workers Stopped Making Progress on Pay. Is It Racism?” The New York Times, June 28, 2021

• William Darity Jr., et al., “What We Get Wrong About Closing the Racial Wealth Gap,” Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity, Insight Center for Community Economic Development, Duke University, April 2018

• Chuck Collins, et al., “Ten Solutions to Bridge the Racial Wealth Divide,” Institute for Policy Studies, April 2019

• Michael Kraus et al., “The Misperception of Racial Economic Inequality,” Perspectives on Psychological Science, September 10, 2019