“Fighting anti-Black racism in the corporate world needs to be done in partnership with academia. After all, business schools in particular play a critical role in shaping the next generation of leaders, and Black representation (or lack thereof) in materials and faculty has an impact on not only who leads businesses but also how they lead. The authors lay out three areas.”
“Americans are demanding a reckoning. Incidents of police brutality and structural inequities that have caused the pandemic to hit people of color especially hard are sparking calls for racial justice. The precarious conditions endured by poorly paid frontline workers who have continued to stay on the job during the pandemic have generated calls for economic justice. Each of these forms of injustice has distinct drivers, but they amplify each other and often fall hardest on the same people. As Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us, economic and racial justice are inexorably linked.”
“The point of theorizing about racial capitalism is to focus our attention on the broader forms of organization that are constitutive of social life under capitalism, beyond how it organizes work and production.”
“The economics profession has long been criticized for often ignoring the structural basis of racism or, in general, any form of identity-based discrimination. Is there something about the way economics is taught that makes it difficult for economists to identify and address structural racism? A survey of around 500 economists that we ran earlier this year would suggest so.”
“I have been puzzled for many months by the appearance of the phrase ‘racial capitalism’ in the left press […]. What does it mean? […] Capitalism and racism overlap sometimes, as they do today in the United States. But the overlap is circumstantial, not necessary.”
“To fulfill Martin Luther King’s vision of jobs and freedoms for Black Americans, Washington must reign in corporate greed”
“Just 3% of US economics PhDs were awarded to black people in 2017 – a share that has been trending downward since the mid-1990s. This week, we examine the effects of this lack of black representation on economic policy and outcomes.”
“The COVID crisis has cast into stark relief what has always been true: the wealth and prosperity of the U.S. economy rests on the labor, and the lives, of black and brown people. Systemic racial disparities of wealth and health are woven deeply into the fabric of American capitalism.”
“While some see companies’ support for Black Lives Matter as a calculated marketing ploy, I argue that companies’ support for Black Lives Matter is an example of corporate activism – in other words, a sincere engagement with the policymaking process. Setting aside the question of whether corporate activism is good or bad for democracy, and whether it is sometimes clumsy or even offensive, it is a genuine attempt to influence policy outcomes.”
“It’s interesting that large corporations see value in using their power as purchasers to force changes, something their own customers might want to note for the future. And seeing Mark Zuckerberg in the crosshairs of a capital strike has a delightful quality to it. But let’s be clear: This is a cosmetic PR move from a corporate sector looking for simple, performative solutions to deep-seated persecution. Multinationals are trying to buy off protesters with empty symbols of solidarity and diversity training seminars. People are in the streets over far more than that.”
