One Hundred Years of African American Economists: Difficulties and Prospects for Black Political Economy in the 21st Century

The challenge set before Black economists in 1967 by Harold Cruse in his seminal work The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual: A Historical Analysis of the Failure of Black Leadership, to create new economic theories, methodologies, and institutional forms, from a Black community point of view, is still with us, and growing more urgent by the day. Mainstream economics has failed to shine much light on fundamental problems of inequality, poverty, and financial and productive stability, particularly as these problems intersect with racial disparity. After 100 years of African American economists, perhaps it is time to strike out on our own behalf and search for the solutions to our community's problems by creating and employing our own lamps.

Why African American Economists Should Abandon Mainstream Economic Theory ASAP

Markets have 14 Achilles heels that reduce the chances of those born into poverty to succeed in today’s complex economy. These intrinsic imperfections, generally overlooked in mainstream Econ 101, include costly information that implies that its acquisition by poor people requires a greater share of their income. Because of inferior schooling opportunities, the poor are more exposed to the myriad of problems associated with bounded rationality. That tastes are assumed to be exogenous is hardly a benign oversight, because people enter the market as children; so the market has a long time to affect their character. This has a harsh effect especially on poor children because they are particularly vulnerable to advertisements and Pavlovian conditioning. Opportunistic behavior means that people with better information can take advantage of others in an immoral, unprincipled, cunning, crafty or deceptive manner. Because of less information at their disposal and because of inferior schooling, minorities are more exposed to the vagaries of predatory advertisements. This often leads to exploitation by people with more power. Mainstream Econ 101 overlooks these Achilles heels. Hence, economists who teach conventional economics provide succor for the maintenance of the status quo which finds minorities in a disadvantageous position in U.S. society.

The National Economic Association at 50: Getting Back to Our Roots

The National Economic Association (NEA) started out as the Caucus of Black Economists in December 1969. At the onset of the 50th Anniversary of the NEA’s founding, this presidential address looks at the organization’s past, present, and future to improve the prospects for current and future African American economists. Three recommendations are offered: support The Review of Black Political Economy, the NEA’s journal; help develop regional student chapters; and continue to foster allies that are aligned with the NEA’s mission. The Economics field needs to be better about becoming diverse and inclusive, and the NEA can lead the movement toward those goals.

Crime and Race: A Plea for New Ideas

A review of the economics of crime literature provides an unsatisfactory explanation of the higher crime rates among African Americans compared to crime rates for whites in the US. This address challenges economists, particularly African American economists, to come up with new and credible ideas to explain the observed crime differential that could influence policies to decrease crime in the African American community.