How to End Racism—Martin Luther King was Right that Basic Income is Essential

John Englart (Takver), CC BY 2.0

When Race and Economic Opportunity in the United States came out in 2018, many writers wrote about how racially unequal the US still is and ignored the promising findings: There are places in the US that show no signs of racism. We can apply the lessons from them to end racism in the entire US.

The researchers, Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, Maggie R. Jones, and Sonya Porter, found:

1. Black women now do better than white women who grew up in families with comparable income.

…black women earn slightly more than white women conditional on parent income. Moreover, there is little or no gap in wage rates or hours of work between black and white women.

2. Black women are on track to do better than white men who grew up in families with comparable income.

…Black women have higher college attendance rates than white men, conditional on parental income.

3. In 99% of neighborhoods in the United States, black men do worse than white men who grew up in families with comparable income. The 1% of neighborhoods where white and black men do equally well share similar traits.

…Both black and white boys have better outcomes in neighborhoods commonly perceived to be “good”…