Why Is Economic Content Missing From African American Studies?

Abstract

Most African American Studies programs have little or no economic content despite the presence of an economics program at the institution. Proper research and evaluation of the works of current African American economists and intellectuals is needed at the institutions that elect to combine the two. This article introduces several options for developing a synergy, beginning with the study of the saturation of slavery by profit and, in its later years, by race then proceeding to programs that detail state set-aside procurement opportunities specifically for minorities. The article also explores policy implications and the development and disintegration of Black entrepreneurship. The educational and analytical goals of economics and African American Studies require a practical, activist component that has, as its goal, an improvement of the status of African American people.