On September 18th, 2019 The Washington Post interviewed Director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, William A. “Sandy” Darity Jr., on his plans for reparations research and his proposal for reparations programs.
Darity has been one of academia’s leading authorities on American racial inequity for years and has plans to develop a committee of other scholars to craft a report to rationalize and curate a paid reparations plan for the descendants of slaves. Darity’s core argument is that black slaves were subject to a form of sustained, race-based discrimination unique in American history, robbing them of individual agency, voting rights and the ability to accumulate wealth and education. The lingering result, Darity argues, is a stunning wealth gap — a recent study that he co-authored found median wealth in greater Los Angeles was $355,000 for white households and just $4,000 for African Americans — that drives other racial disparities in areas such as crime, education and health outcomes.
