Your Call: A young black man's education

August 25, 2016 12:34 AM

Mychal Denzel Smith, author of Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching, discusses his new book: "We have to be willing to let go of the things that we think that we like about ourselves because if they are things that deny others access to respect and dignity and humanity, then they're not things worth having. So we have to be willing to let go." (MDS: previously)

Alicia Garza: "Lots of people who are great people are implementing and protecting systems, practices, structures that fundamentally exclude, disenfranchise, marginalize black people."

also btw (the 'NKs' are making waves...)

• The Fed's Effect on Black Americans - "The U.S. Federal Reserve appears to be paying more attention to how its policies affect black Americans. This is a wise move... The Fed rightly aims to pursue policies that are best for the economy as a whole. But I don't believe that it will be seen as truly representative of all Americans unless it understands the differential impact of its policy choices on key demographic subgroups."
• Federal Reserve under growing pressure to reform system, goals - "Fed Up, a network of community organizations and labor unions that wants a more diverse, transparent and income-inequality aware central bank, will meet with Kansas City Fed President Esther George... Currently 11 of the 12 regional Fed presidents are white, 10 are male, and none are black or Latino. At the Board level, the highest echelons of the Fed, Yellen is the first woman chair in the central bank's 103-year history."
• Minneapolis Fed chief Neel Kashkari says racial economic gap needs forceful response - "A U.S. central banker on Wednesday pledged to devote more resources to addressing economic disparities between black and white Americans, saying the high rate of unemployment among African Americans is 'really troubling'... Kashkari, a former Republican candidate for California governor, is the son of Indian immigrants and the only one of 17 Fed policy-makers nationwide who is not white."
• The Movement For Black Lives Gets Behind A Universal Basic Income - "No other social or economic policy solution today would be of sufficient scale to eradicate the profound and systematic economic inequities affecting black communities."
• Rewrite the Racial Rules: Building an Inclusive American Economy - "In order to understand racial and economic inequality among black Americans, we must acknowledge the racial rules that undergird our economy and society. Those rules—laws, policies, institutions, regulations, and normative practices—are the driving force behind the patently unequal life chances and opportunities for too many individuals. In this report, Andrea Flynn, Dorian Warren, Felicia Wong, and Susan Holmberg examine the racial rules across six different dimensions: income, wealth, education, criminal justice, health, and democratic participation. Ultimately, we show why the rules structuring our economy matter for the well-being of black Americans. And, against the backdrop of stark racial economic inequality dating back centuries, we make the case for pushing past both explicit and implicit exclusions, as well as ostensible race-neutrality."

posted by kliuless (2 comments total)

Thank you kliuless.
posted by infini at 3:47 AM on August 25, 2016

I have been following Smith on Twitter for yoinks after he made an appearance on my favourite indie political podcast, I requested my library carry his book, and I just finished it last week. His work is just as important as Ta-Nehisi Coates, IMO.
posted by Kitteh at 5:00 AM on August 25, 2016