Why We Need Reparations for Black Americans

“Bootstrapping isn’t going to erase racial wealth divides. As economists William ‘Sandy’ Darity and Darrick Hamilton point out in their 2018 report, What We Get Wrong About Closing the Wealth Gap, ‘Blacks cannot close the racial wealth gap by changing their individual behavior –i.e. by assuming more “personal responsibility” or acquiring the portfolio management insights associated with “[financial] literacy.”’ In fact, white high school dropouts have more wealth than Black college graduates. Moreover, the racial wealth gap did not result from a lack of labor. Rather, it came from a lack of financial capital…”