The Bucks Start Here: William Darity Jr. and Kirsten Mullen (Pay The Tab #19)

We go deep into the money of reparations with the nation's two leading experts

Everywhere you look are signs of America’s ever-growing wealth gap: the rich get richer while everyone else struggles to get by.

Corporate profits keep breaking records, while people go without health care, or jobs, or education… or food. Tent cities proliferate. Our government spends trillions of our tax dollars on wars that only make profits for the few - while our own people suffer.

So what about reparations? Some people say to get real justice for Black Americans we need to blow up our whole system of extraction, profits, and racism. Dr. King spoke about this towards the end of his life. And we agree: for there to be justice in America, our whole society needs a radical makeover.

The Color of Money

But let’s take a closer look. Our corrupt system doesn’t hurt all Americans equally. It never has. The elephant in the room is our caste system built on anti-Black racism - which America was founded on and continues to this day. For centuries the U.S. government has mindfully, intentionally fostered this system where Black people are denied basic human rights and the many wealth-building programs that white Americans take for granted.

Black Americans face not only the daily racism and endless hurdles. But also the generations of violence and exclusion that have wiped out any hope of getting ahead. As a result, we have a country where Black college graduates have far less wealth than whites with a high school diploma. Where older Black women with a college degree have a median wealth of $11,000 - while their white counterparts’ wealth is $384,000 - 3,400 percent higher.

The result of all this is the “racial wealth gap.” On average, white households in America own 10 times the wealth of Black households. This translates to a shortfall of $400,000 for every Black person in America - a whopping total of $16 trillion.

Enter The Dynamic Duo

Our new episode features a lively talk with William Darity Jr. and Kirsten Mullen, the leading experts on Black reparations in America. They’ve been crusading for over 30 years, studying our history, crunching the numbers, and spreading the word. Their leading book, From Here To Equality: Reparations For Black Americans in the 21st Century (2020), lays out their case for reparations and is opening minds around the country.

We’ve been hoping to have Darity and Mullen on the podcast since we started.

That moment has arrived!

Our talk dives deep. Darity and Mullen break down their 3-part plan for reparations: Acknowledgement, Redress, and Closure. They talk about the need for the U.S. government to finally admit to, and make amends for, its dirty deeds.

And yes, the money.

Like they tell us, closing the racial wealth gap with some cash can transform people’s lives, now.

So how much is the tab? Even though the full amount to repay Black people for America’s crimes is much higher, they say we should go by the amount needed to close the racial wealth gap: $400k per Black American.

Darity and Mullen make no apologies for the size of the tab. To the contrary, it reflects the magnitude of America’s crimes against humanity. It was created by our government and must be fixed by our government.

Our conversation with these fighters can give us all hope. Public support for reparations is growing. They have great ideas for how all of us can help pressure the U.S. government to finally take action and make reparations happen.

Check out this episode! And join us as we venture into this new chapter of history, together.

Coming soon: Slavery in America, Now

People say slavery ended a long time ago. Not true. Our modern system of mass incarceration uses forced labor (disproportionately Black, usually with little or no pay) to make profits for big business.

On our next episode we’ll travel to Louisiana, the incarceration capital of America, where more than 1 in every 100 people are behind bars. We’ll talk with Eric Seiferth, who helped curate “Captive State,” a devastating photo exhibit in New Orleans about the seamless through-line from slavery times to today and the ways our governments have kept this barbaric system going the while time.

Go to paythetab.org for all our episodes and more about the podcast!

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Peace,

Tony & Adam