As the call to address racism reverberates around the world, Cornell’s College of Arts & Sciences has launched the year-long webinar series “Racism in America.” The series features Cornell faculty examining the latest research on the impact of racism on important aspects of American life, including government, society, health, and the economy.

In the final webinar of the series, our focus will be on the many ways that racism influences economics in America-from debates over who “trickle down” economics does and does not benefit, to a look at how racism has influenced supposedly race neutral financial policies such as the G.I. Bill, the home mortgage deduction, and social security. Organized to look at the past as well as present of the relationship of racism to capitalism and the unequal impact of COVID-19 on different sectors of the economy.

Registration is required for the free April 27 event, which begins at 7 pm.

Topics covered in the webinar will include:

Modern capitalism’s roots in racial oppression;The impact of racism on federal, state and local economic policies;The intersection of labor history and racism; andThe meaning of structural racismModerated by Washington Post reporter Tracy Jan, the webinar will feature four Cornell faculty experts. Jan covers the intersection of race and the economy for The Washington Post, a beat she launched in December 2016 that encompasses racial economic disparities, immigration, housing policy and other stories that hold businesses and politicians accountable for their decisions and promises. Her work has delved deeply into reparations for slavery, systemic racism in America, and the economic and health impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Black, Asian, Latino and immigrant communities. She previously was a Washington-based national political reporter for The Boston Globe and was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, as well as a Fulbright Fellow in Taiwan.

The panelists for the webinar are:

Lawrence Glickman is the Stephen and Evalyn Milman Professor of American Studies in the Department of History (A&S). He is a core faculty member in the History of Capitalism Initiative and the author or editor of five books, including “Free Enterprise: An American History (2019) and Buying Power: A History of Consumer Activism in America. He also writes on public affairs for the Atlantic, Washington Post, Boston Review, Dissent, and other periodicals. At Cornell, he teaches a popular course on “Sports and Politics in American History” and has co-taught with Professor Edward E. Baptist, “The History of American Capitalism,” as well as a variety of lecture and seminar courses on political, cultural, and intellectual history. Tejasvi Nagaraja is an assistant professor of history in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR). His research and teaching explore the intersections of labor and African American and foreign relations history. Nagaraja is writing a book about America’s World War II experience and generation. It reconstructs a far-flung war within the war, among Americans themselves. This transnational story braids military-industrial labor battles, Black soldiers’ protest against policing and incarceration, and veterans’ debates about America’s role in the world. Diverse war workers led a ‘greatest generation’ of labor, Black freedom and other social movements, which linked racial and economic and geopolitical contentions.Erica Groshen is senior economics advisor in the ILR Labor Dynamics Institute (ILR) and research fellow at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. From 2013 to 2017, she served as the 14th commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the principal federal agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and inflation. Before that, she was vice president in the Research and Statistics Group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Her research has centered on jobless recoveries, wage rigidity and dispersion, and the role of employers in the labor market. Riché Richardson, an associate professor of Africana studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. Her areas of interest include African American literature, American studies, black feminism, gender studies, Southern studies, cultural studies and critical theory. Her books include “Black Masculinity and the U.S. South: From Uncle Tom to Gangsta” and “Emancipation's Daughters: Reimagining Black Femininity and the National Body.” Richardson is also a visual artist; her mixed-media appliqué art quilts have been exhibited in solo shows at the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery and included in national exhibitions, including “Quilts for Obama” curated by Roland Freeman at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., in 2009.Co-hosted by the American Studies Program, the “Racism in America” series is supported by Alumni Affairs and Development; Diversity Alumni Programs; and powered by eCornell. Other colleges have been partners on the series’ other webinars.