Black Lives Matter & Anti-Racist Resources

  • June 1, 2020

Statement from EARN and EPI

All of us at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) are angered and deeply saddened by the police murder of George Floyd, and so many other senseless deaths in the Black community—incidents rooted in a long history of anti-Blackness in our nation.

This is a horrible moment for our nation—and a moment that challenges each of us to commit to lasting change.

The racism that led to these tragic and unnecessary deaths has also created tragic economic disparities between Black and white people in the United States, a reality that the pandemic has magnified and laid bare.

EPI’s staff knows this all too well. For more than 30 years, EPI researchers have used the tools of economic analysis and empirical research to expose the truth about the glaring and growing inequality in the United States impacting working families—disparities that are disproportionately experienced by Black people.

Exposing and understanding the root causes of the systemic racism, inequities, and injustice in the U.S. economy is a necessary precondition for developing, advocating for, and ultimately implementing policy solutions adequate to the scale and scope of the problem.

We have all been shaken by recent events, which are bound by a common thread of bigotry woven throughout U.S. history. We all know that derailing racism is the only way to ensure that all Black people are able to live the supposed American dream, not the American nightmare we are witnessing now.

—The Economic Policy Institute staff 

Originally posted here.

EARN members’ statements:  

A selection of EPI resources and webinars on systemic anti-black racism through an economic policy lens: 

To explore more EPI resources on race and the economy, you can take a look at the videos and podcast episodes available on our website and YouTube channel. In particular, you can watch the recordings of the Program on Race Ethnicity and the Economy (PREE) workshop series: Turning Good Intentions into Constructive Engagement on Race. 

  1. Basic Principles for Constructive Engagement on Race 
  2. Race and Ethnicity in Empirical Analysis 
  3. Building Effective Partnerships with Racial Justice-Focused Advocates and Activists 
  4. Contemporary Social Issues and the Native American Experience in the United States 
  5. Contemporary Social Issues and the Asian American Experience in the United States 
  6. Contemporary Social Issues & the African American Experience 

Contextualizing the murder of George Floyd and other black Americans murdered by police, the Black Lives Matter movement, and systemic racism in the United States:  

Tools for being anti-racist: 

  • Excellent guides from the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture on talking about race and being anti-racist. The museum has a host of online resources that are worth exploring. 
  • So You Want to Talk About Race? by Ijeoma Oluo: A guide for having constructive conversations about race that are aimed at making long-lasting change 
  • White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo and Michael Eric Dyson and  
  • How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi 
  • Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi: A history of racist ideas in America. A retelling of American history that focuses on the ways that racist and assimilationist ideas and philosophies have shaped our country. The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates (The Atlantic) 

Relevant Research and Publications from EARN Members:

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