The Samuel DuBois Cook Center is a scholarly collaborative that studies the causes and consequences of inequality and develops remedies for these disparities and their adverse effects.
Founding Director William A. Darity Jr.’s work on reparations was highlighted in Capital B story about the possibility of mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to successfully purse reparations in New York City. Dr. Darity’s says that closing the racial wealth gap is the best measure for reparations. He estimates that New York would have to pay…
Faculty Affiliate Fenaba Addo, Associate Professor of Public Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill, participated in a webinar hosted by the University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty. Dr. Addo, along with two other experts, contributed insight on the impact of college loan debt across racial lines. I want to underscore that student debt is not just…
Faculty Affiliate Sandra L. Barnes, the C.V. Starr Professor of Sociology at the Brown University, continues to lead critical conversations on religion, identity, and the lived experiences of Black communities. Her recent publications explore how faith, culture, and structural factors shape well-being and belonging among young Black people with diverse sexual identities. Below are three…
Faculty Affiliate Carliss Chatman, Professor at SMU Dedman School of Law, was quoted in a story by Marketplace examining how companies are quietly rebranding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The article explores how some corporations are scaling back or reframing public-facing DEI language amid political scrutiny. And, that the broader landscape is more nuanced…
February 20, 2026 — A new first-of-its-kind study of nearly 3,000 adults in New York City finds significant inequities in wealth and health outcomes across the 11 most common racial and ethnic groups, showing that Black and Latino New Yorkers have less wealth and unfairly worse health outcomes compared to others. Conducted in June 2024 by…
Faculty Affiliate Omer Ali is an Assistant Professor of economics at the University of Pittsburgh, and previous postdoctoral fellow a the Cook Center. Ali is the lead researcher on a new article published in Regional Science and Urban Economics this month examining the relationship between race and home values in Durham, North Carolina. The study…
