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Black entrepreneurship's role in closing the racial wealth gap

Kezia Williams, CEO of the Black upStart, on how Black-owned businesses can bridge a wealth divide rooted in discrimination.
Studies show that Black women are the fastest-growing segment of entrepreneurs.
ljubaphoto via Getty Images

How the video game Dot's Home was adapted for the stage

"Dot's Home Live" has been performed in Detroit in an effort to share the game's housing rights story with the community.
The video game Dot's Home has been downloaded more than half a million times on phones and computers. But co-creator Christina Rosales knew that games are often played alone, and she wanted to bring the production to the “next level.”
David Brancaccio/Marketplace

The racial wealth gap, 60 years since the Civil Rights Act

A new report from the National Urban League highlights progress, but also underscores how elusive economic equality is.
"We've seen some closures in the education gap. But there's still a gap — the health care gap, the economic gap. In social justice, which covers the criminal justice system, we've actually seen a loss of ground in a significant way," says Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League.
Courtesy National Urban League

A tech company pledged to make "anti-racist" layoffs. What does that mean?

Sep 19, 2022
Communication platform Twilio told employees job cuts would be carried out through an "anti-racist/anti-oppression lens," to avoid disproportionately affecting marginalized groups. Statistics show downsizing often makes workplaces less diverse.
In a letter to employees, Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson, left, said layoffs would be carried out through an anti-racist/anti-oppression lens.
John Phillips/Getty Images for TechCrunch

New research shows racial discrimination in hiring is still happening at the earliest stages

Evan Rose, co-author and Saieh Family Research Fellow at the University of Chicago, discusses how discrimination based on job applicant name is still pervasive
Job application forms await applicants for hospitality employment during a Zislis Group job fair at The Brew Hall on June 23, 2021 in Torrance, California.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

Why the words of America’s first Black economist resonate today

“She was prescient in many ways,” says Nina Banks, editor of a new book on the speeches and writing of Sadie T. M. Alexander.
Sadie T. M. Alexander, the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in economics in the United States, reads a comic book to children in 1948.
University Archives and Records Center, University of Pennsylvania.

Researchers work to diversify clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccine

Nov 10, 2020
Researchers say they must overcome deep mistrust of medical research in the Black, Latinx and Native American communities in recruiting volunteers for vaccine testing.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

JPMorgan Chase promises $30 billion to address racial wealth gap

Some of the initiative is philanthropic, but most of it is lending with an expected return for the bank.
"We can do more and do better to break down systems that have propagated racism and widespread economic inequality, especially for Black and Latinx people," JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said.
Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images

The history of Black stunt people's fight for equal opportunity in Hollywood

Jun 10, 2020
You can trace it back to the 1960s and the advent of the Black Stuntmen's Association.
The Black Stuntmen’s Association is honored at the NAACP with the President's Award.
Courtesy Phyllis Linda Ellis

Inequality by design: How redlining continues to shape our economy

Apr 16, 2020
A traveling exhibit connects the racist housing policies of the past to the inequities of today.
Nathan Connolly, a professor of history at Johns Hopkins University, stands in front of the Undesign the Redline exhibit at Impact Hub Baltimore.
Amy Scott/Marketplace