DURHAM, N.C. – Barack Obama. Meghan Markle. Trevor Noah. Depending on your race, you might consider these and other Multiracial people as Black, White, or somewhere in-between, according to new research by psychologists at Duke University and the University of Chicago. Their report finds that Black and White children and adults categorize racially ambiguous faces…
SCOTT DETROW, HOST: The cost of health care behind bars is getting more expensive. Over the past three decades, the population of elderly people serving time in state and federal prison has skyrocketed. And it’s not just the elderly. LAUREN BRINKLEY-RUBINSTEIN: Prisons and jails are environments of risk. DETROW: Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein is an associate professor…
A surge in interest in black reparations is taking place in America on a scale not seen since the Reconstruction Era. The Black Reparations Project: A Handbook for Racial Justice (U California Press, 2023) gathers an accomplished interdisciplinary team of scholars-members of the Reparations Planning Committee-who have considered the issues pertinent to making reparations happen. This book…
Like many other Gen Xers, I had my first job at 14 years old when I got a permit to be legally employed. I earned about $3.35 an hour and the job itself was nontraditional – I was a proofreader at the global investment bank Lazard in midtown Manhattan. As a Puerto Rican girl growing…
For journalists, researchers and policymakers interested in understanding how job earnings differ across demographic groups, keep this mind: Measures of racial wage gaps that don’t account for prisoners and people who have been out of work a long time are probably missing the full economic picture, suggests new research by University of Massachusetts Amherst economist Jeannette Wicks-Lim. The…
The issue of reparations has been a topic of intense and heated debate and discussion in the U.S. for years, with advocates arguing for redress for historical wrongs and systemic racial inequalities. Dr. William “Sandy” Darity, a leading expert on reparations, recently appeared on a TV special focused on the concept of “40 Acres and a…
West Coast economist Brandon Ware was inspired to research food deserts when he had to drive nearly five miles before finding what he called “a full-fledged grocery store” while visiting family in Michigan. Food deserts are urban areas where residents have little or no access to affordable, fresh healthy food. Ware, an associate professor of…
Ph.D students at Duke University in Durham voted overwhelmingly in favor of unionizing Tuesday, the result of a years-long campaign to bargain collectively with the university. When the election is certified, the graduate student workers will form the first graduate union at a private university in the South and one of the largest unions in…
Global household wealth — basically, total assets — declined in 2022. That’s according to a new report from UBS, the Swiss financial giant. At the same time, global wealth inequality also fell. Global wealth data gives us a sense of where wealth is concentrated. “The gaps are so enormous that for the same person having such…
The August gathering of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity’s Diversity Initiative for Tenure in Economics wrapped up last Thursday amid a flurry of presentations, honors, and enthusiastic discussion. The program, which provides mentorship and workshops to aid the transition from junior faculty status to associate professor for economists from underrepresented groups, continued…