Founding Director William A. Darity, Jr., professor of public policy and economics at Duke University and co-author of From Here to Equality, was featured on Ways & Means, a podcast produced by Duke’s Sanford School, in a powerful episode exploring how reparations for Black American descendants of slavery could become reality.
Darity outlined the historical and policy-based roots of the racial wealth gap, including the exclusion of Black Americans from wealth-building opportunities like the Homestead Act and GI Bill. He argued that reparations are not only morally justified but practically achievable through direct federal payments, estimating a necessary allocation of $10–12 trillion to close the racial wealth gap.
The culpable party is the federal government… This is a matter of national responsibility.”
He also discussed the formation of a Reparations Planning Committee and reaffirmed his belief that, like the abolition of slavery, reparations require long-term advocacy—even when political odds seem low.
The wealth gap continues to grow. African Americans account for 13 percent of the national population but hold only 3 percent of national wealth and the reasons why go way back. Darity argues the racial wealth gap can be traced to a series of policies that denied economic opportunity to African Americans and provided opportunities to many white Americans.
The idea is that wealth begets wealth — that wealth is something that is acquired cumulatively. And so you can either get on the path of accumulation or you can be on the path of decumulation.”
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