The Economics of Racism

SUMMARY: This episode uncovers the economic side of systemic racism in the United States throughout history and how it led to the uncomfortable reality where Black people in America have been locked out of every period of wealth accumulation by design. We ask and answer difficult questions that used to only be asked in polite company but have now become off-the-cuff talking points on the right. The show also challenges conventional economic wisdom within the Black community and draws a conclusion that can only be called “inevitable”: Reparations or Revolution.

CHAPTERS
00:00 - Disclaimer
00:11 - Introduction
01:44 - Hard Questions & Complicated Definitions
05:55 - Tulsa Massacre & Black Wall Street
08:40 - 40 Acres - Reconstruction and Broken Promises
13:31 - 100 Years of racist policy
37:27 - Revisiting the hard questions
41:10 - Closing thoughts
44:33 - Outro & Credits

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ABOUT UNFTR
Unf*cking the Republic (UNFTR for short) is progressive media organization that produces a longform podcast, YouTube videos, a twice weekly newsletter and original editorials on U.S. politics, socio economics and civil liberties. Our features attempt to explain how we arrived in Bizarro America, the funhouse mirror version of what was originally intended. You can access all of our work at www.UNFTR.com

[markwilson]

Every inch of Black economic progress and mobility was met with systemic, institutional and structural barriers.

[daikancho]

Gotta say - I respect the heck outta this guy for having the guts to go this deep, and not being afraid to say out loud that blacks were specifically targeted by America. Subbed!

[jeffreymassey]

And this is the reason Reparations are needed for FBA's or Freedmen of America. A MUST for all the injustice that have taken place for 400 plus years.

[xnzjydu]

Yes, my husband who is a black man managed to finally get his own business a trucking company. It was only one truck, but it was his own business. Finally started making some money and then Covid happens. I can’t remember the specific reason, but we didn’t qualify for any help from all of the Covid stuff they were doing for businesses, but we lost our business for sure and now we owe credit card debt up the Wazoo because we had to live on credit cards, and also we finally got our credit together right before Covid by a house and long story short we were denied no matter what we do were denied

[aDogNamedCatunderdog-og]

Thank you for this. I attended Catholic grade school when I was first introduced to Black history in the seventh grade. My mom liked our text so much that she bought one for our home. She made sure that we understood our history and its significance alongside US history.

[nooneinparticular]

Reparations = direct cash payments. Nothing else will do.

[adaku]

Thank you for doing this video. My degree is in history and my minor is in black American studies. If more people knew this information, I believe people would be less susceptible to say black Americans aren’t currently experiencing racism and the effects of this country’s history of racism. I have banked at one of the last black banks in this country for the past 25 years. And I just left a job at a financial firm last year. While working there, I realized I lacked financial education and this information is kept from not only black people but people in general in our country.

[riderinblack]

I always loved Jane Elliott, when asked if she thought all white people were racist. She replied, "Yes, unless you didn't pay attention to what you were taught in school."

[dollarwil]

I know your video is for Whites but as an African American I thoroughly enjoyed it. I forwarded the video to several large content creators. Great job.

[ReinaAnastasia-sq]

I appreciate the opening bit, but tbh we do need more white people to talk about systemic racism. It can't just be the people oppressed by it talking about it. I love the video though. It's a great historical and economic analysis of Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction American history.

[Regina.Clarke]

Great video! Thanks for doing your part.

[hassanigraves]

These days .. all this talk about the economy and not one peep about racism and how it constrains progress for everyone. Thank you for spreading the truth. 🙏🏾

[llIllIlI]

Two years before the Tulsa massacre, there was the Red Summer.

[theregularfolks]

Thank you, to all the beautiful people in the comments… I am a black man, intellectually fortunate enough to have the capacity to elude systemic miseducation, and there is no way that I alone can pull the masses of black Americans out of Plato’s allegory of the cave… I wish someone would do a study on how many gifted, 99th percentile SAT score, black men like me have been made invisible… I have a recorded IQ of 136… but have been unable to navigate myself into the type of financial success expected from an individual with my capabilities. I have been stuck in this poor Alabama city that is devoid of actual opportunity zones for people like me except the time I have spent in the US military, and I’m am mentally exhausted and unfathomably depressed 😞… so again, thank you all for just trying to understand

[BrickGriff]

"They're not trying to do homework. They're just looking for someone to blame!"
Yes. And that's the problem. And that's why it most certainly is not "okay" lol

[BrickGriff]

"...and this was the hardest part to wrap my head around... Capitalism seems to be just racist."

[Dgstar]

I definitely need to tell u how much I love this very important video. I'm 61 years old and I find myself lost and confused an unable to position myself through many disparities that are very impossible to accomplish stability. I find myself lost and unworthy by some deep depression that is invisible yet visible. My self confidence self esteem and self love is something that has been passed on to me. I wake up with the energy of optimism but I go to bed feeling exhausted from my spirit drained from this invisible trauma that causes me to become unmotivated and motionless. This video is powerful and also painful and yet it's a reminder that Americans silence is saying so what who cares everyone knows what America is done

[davidluckens]

Terrific video-As Faulkner said long ago, "The past isn't dead, it isn't even past".

[TroyProutyShow]

14%.. own only 5% of wealth. It's unacceptable.

[ThethManRules]

What good is a society that can't/won't fix its own self-inflicted socially constructed problems?