Department of African & African American StudiesDuke University Economics Professor William ‘Sandy’ Darity, is one of many vocal supporters of reparations, leading the charge to make people look more intently at the data and empirical evidence around Black wealth in this country, rather than concluding a narrative based on assumptions. Listen read more about Reparations Expert Says It's Time To Stop the Tired Narrative That Black People Can't Manage Money »
William Darity, a professor of public policy at Duke University, said it’s “nonsensical” to think that greater wealth for the rich translates to improved fortunes for everyone else. “Otherwise we would not have observed such an obscene increase in the degree of income inequality that has restored the magnitude of levels that existed on the eve of the Great Depression,” he told me. “I have not seen anyone make a serious claim for a trickle-down effect with respect to wealth.” Read More read more about Column: Trickle Down Theory Is A Monstrous Lie Intended to Justify the Rich Getting Richer »
You can really draw a clear line from the earliest days of slavery…to the racial wealth gap and economic picture of this country today. Today, 400 years since slavery began in the United States, we’re going to draw those connections with William Darity, who goes by Sandy. He's the Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies, and Economics; and the director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University. LISTEN read more about 1619: The Racist Roots of the U.S. Wealth Gap »
Still, player clout has limits, Mark Anthony Neal, chair of the Department of African and African American Studies at Duke University, cautioned. He cited Warriors Coach Steve Kerr’s recent criticism of players who tried to force trades while under contract. Neal also cited when Phil Jackson, the Hall of Fame coach, referred to James’s African-American friends and business partners as a “posse” in 2016. “Phil Jackson is one of the figures in the league that we see as relatively woke,” Neal said. What does that say, he… read more about Is Slavery's Legacy in the Power Dynamics of Sport? »
Step into the studio with Duke AAAS professor 9th Wonder, the legendary producer behind Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Erykah Badu, Mary J. Blige, and more. Find out what makes him one of the most energetic, inspiring, and influential producers in the game – and see how he creates his signature soulful sound with MASCHINE. WATCH read more about 10 Years of Maschine: 9th Wonder »
“The origins of the racial wealth gap start with the failure to provide the formerly enslaved with the land grants of 40 acres,” says William A. Darity Jr., a professor of public policy and African-American studies at Duke University. Any financial progress that black people made was regarded as an affront to white supremacy. After a decade of black gains under Reconstruction, a much longer period of racial violence would wipe nearly all of it away. Read More read more about A Vast Wealth Gap Driven By Segregation, Redlining, Evictions and Exclusion Separates Black and White Amerca »
Holloway, the James B. Duke Professor Emerita of English, vividly recalls an encounter with Morrison at Duke in the late 1990s. Morrison was in town for a standing-room-only symposium entitled “African-American Women: The Body Politic” -- one of several visits the Nobel laureate paid to Duke. Read More read more about Toni Morrison Remembered As a 'Writer For This Age' »
For a brief and all-too-rare moment in American politics, the case for slavery reparations took center stage Tuesday night, and William Darity Jr. was thrilled. Darity is a public policy professor at Duke University and an acclaimed scholar on reparations, and for the first time in his life the idea of compensating the living Black descendants of American slaves was being discussed by people running for president—one of them, author and spiritual guru Marianne Williamson, actually working out the math on stage, in front of… read more about 150 Years Later, Slavery Reparations Are On The Agenda Again »
The fundamental problem is the inadequate set of resources that blacks can transfer from past generations that creates the racial wealth gap. And that dynastic effect is associated with our whole history of white supremacy and racism in the United States. LISTEN read more about Can Reparations Help Right The Wrongs of Slavery? »
“Because this is Duke, everything’s about basketball,” said professor Mark Anthony Neal, who taught Stroman that summer. “I had both Zion [Williamson] and RJ [Barrett] in my class, and there’s never an expectation — because they’re here for one year — that they’re ever gonna come back and finish their degree. But it says a great deal about who Marcus is as a person that getting his degree was still important to him even after he made it to the big leagues. … In class, he was engaged and very attentive.” Read More read more about How Mets' Marcus Stroman Became Must-See Baseball Show »
Mark Anthony Neal, chairman of the African and African-American Studies Department at Duke University, said Thursday that Goodman's comment and attitude don't surprise him. "There are still pockets of deep racism in this country," Neal said, "pockets, even here, even in 2019, in which people are still very comfortable using that kind of language to describe African-Americans." Read More read more about Duke Professor: People Not Remorseful About Their Racism, Only About Getting Called Out On It »
“The paradox, of course, with respect to black people who are descendants of persons who were enslaved in the United States, is that you’re telling people to go back to where they came from after you forcefully transported them here,” said William Darity, a public policy professor at Duke University. Read More read more about Behind Trump's 'Go Back' Demand: A Long History of Rejecting 'Different' Americans »
For decades, William Darity Jr. and Darrick Hamilton toiled in obscurity. They criticized mainstream economists and politicians for failing to address racial inequality, and touted more radical remedies of their own. Now, with the 2020 presidential campaign under way and liberal Democrats ascendant, the two economists are in the spotlight, thrust into the middle of an intraparty debate over how much to embrace big government and a race-oriented message. Read More read more about Two Economists Fuel Democratic Debate Over How Far Left To Go »
William A. Darity Jr., Samuel DuBois Cook professor of public policy and the director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity, has been researching reparations for more than 30 years. Read More read more about Duke Professor William Darity, Jr. Is Leading the Discussion About Reparations »
“A lot of people are sort of jumping out and saying this is xenophobic or nativist, but I don’t see this at all as a claim that is hostile to other communities,” Darity said. “There are people who perceived it as hostile because it breaks with the notion that there is complete homogeneity among the black community.” He stressed that people not descended from slaves, like Harris or former president Barack Obama, are just as fit to be political leaders for the black community. Read More read more about A Few Liberal Activists Challenged Kamala Harris' Black Authenticity »
The US Diversity Visa (DV) lottery, also referred to as the green card lottery, allocates 50,000 visas annually to those from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the US. Up to twenty million people from around the world apply each year, with winners selected by raffle. The DV program came into being in the mid-1990s, thanks to a powerful Irish lobby in Congress led by Teddy Kennedy—but that’s another (albeit fascinating and bizarre) story. Today, in a sweetly ironic postcolonial twist, Africans have… read more about Q&A With Charlie Piot, Author of The Fixer »
William Darity, a public policy professor at Duke University, has researched reparations for decades. With Professor Dania Francis at UMass Amherst, their paper, “The Economics of Reparations,” notes that the United States has paid reparations to wronged communities before, including Japanese families kept in internment camps, and Native-American tribes. But, they write, “almost 250 years of domestic enslavement of African people and their descendants have not elicited a similar response from the U.S. government.” Read More read more about Slavery Reparations Could Carry a $17 Trillion Price Tag »
Critics and scholars, including Mark Anthony Neal, say the rules echo a long history of keeping black people out of private and public spaces. Neal and popular culture expert Natalie Bullock Brown join host Frank Stasio to talk about the story in the latest installment of #BackChannel, The State of Things’ recurring series connecting culture and context. Listen read more about Racist Pool Rules in NC and 'When They See Us' Makes an Old Story Go Global »
Beyond the visual provocations, Lee has never missed an opportunity to link music to his message. His brilliance as a filmmaker and tastemaker is tied to his use of the Black musical archive. Nowhere was this more pronounced than the song that opens Do This Right Thing, Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power.” Read More read more about 'Swinging While I'm Singing': Spike Lee, Public Enemy and the Message in the Music »
Many leading proponents of reparations point to the federal government’s failure to provide land and resources (40 acres and a mule) to former slaves following emancipation, as promised, as laying the course for today’s inequities. “Had such a racial land reform taken place,” the Duke University economist William Darity Jr. argues, “it is easy to envision that the vast current differences in wealth between black and nonblacks would not exist.” Mr. Darity has gone so far as to use the ungranted 40 acres of land that was due… read more about Black People's Land Was Stolen »
William Darity, a professor of public policy at Duke University, where one of his areas of expertise is the economics of reparations, is one of the guests discussing hearings for a bill that would create a commission to study how slavery impacted its descendants, as well as possibilities for redress, including compensation. LISTEN read more about Ahead of House Panel Hearing, We Discuss The History of the Slavery Reparations Movement »
“We have not had a conversation about reparations on this scale or level since the Reconstruction Era,” William A. Darity Jr., a professor of public policy at Duke University who is writing a book on reparations, said in a telephone interview. “To be blunt, I am more optimistic than I have ever been in my life about the prospect of the enactment of a reparations program that is comprehensive and transformative.” Read More read more about At House Hearing, Panel Explores Reparations »
Duke University professor William Darity outlined the three components of reparations on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” on June 19. WATCH read more about Duke Professor Outlines Definition of Reparations »
My first reaction to a recent story about the Outdoor Recreation Center in Wendell, N.C., and its stated pool guidelines that “No baggy pants, no dread-locks/weaves/extensions or revealing clothes will be permitted or you will be asked to leave” was one of whimsy; it seemed so ridiculous. That is until my 16-year-old daughter, who has swum competitively and worn locs for a decade, quickly stated her displeasure with the rules with an emphatic “that’s racist” (and I won’t state the descriptor that she added). Read More read more about NC's Pool Rules Echo History of Keeping Blacks Out »
William A. Darity Jr.: I would like the hearing to make it clear that a program of reparations must designate black American descendants of persons enslaved in the United States as recipients, that a primary goal of a reparations program must be elimination of the racial wealth gap, and that the injustices that form the basis for the reparations claim must include slavery, nearly a century of legal segregation in the United States, and ongoing racism manifest in police executions of unarmed blacks, mass… read more about What Americans Need To Know About Reparations Ahead of This Week's Big Hearing »
Eva Michelle Wheeler of Oakwood University will work with Mark Anthony Neal and the Department of African & African American Studies on critical analysis of translations of ethnonyms and epithets in literature and film Read More read more about Duke Welcomes NCCU, Durham Tech, Liberal Arts Collaborators to Humanities Unbounded Initiative »
Serving along with Duke Divinity School Dean L. Gregory Jones M.Div.’85, Ph.D.’88 (Committee Chair) will be Jeff Baker, Professor of Pediatrics and Research Professor of History; Valerie Gillispie, University Archivist; Kerry Haynie, Associate Professor of Political Science and Chair of Academic Council (ex officio); William E. King ’61, A.M.’63, Ph.D.’70, University Archivist Emeritus; Adriane D. Lentz-Smith, Associate Professor of History… read more about Price Creates President's Advisory Committee on Institutional History »
“It’s Black Music Month, so all the films highlight black music,” said Camille Jackson, director of communications for the Department of African & African American Studies. “We’re hoping to attract people from both the Duke and Durham communities for this celebration of black music," Jackson said. Read More read more about The Music is in the Movie »
No economist has addressed the issue with the persistence and power that Duke University’s William Darity Jr. has. For nearly three decades, “Sandy” Darity has written papers and given presentations discussing the rationale and design of reparations policy. Next year, he will publish a book dedicated to the question, co-authored with his wife, Kirsten Mullen. Read More read more about 'If You Think Something's The Right Thing To Do, Then You Pursue It' »
Can philanthropy be a substitute for public policy? Popular culture experts Mark Anthony Neal and Natalie Bullock Brown take on that question with host Frank Stasio in the latest installment of #BackChannel, The State of Things’ recurring series connecting culture and context. They also discuss the new Netflix political documentary “Knock Down The House” which follows four progressive women who challenged incumbent Democrats in the 2018 election, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY). LISTEN read more about A Black Billionaire and Queen Latifah Pay It Forward; Rihanna's Empire and Wu-Tang Clan »