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I was listening to NPR the other day and they were presenting the work of an African American Economics researcher who linked lynchings and the Tulsa Race Massacre to the decrease in African American inventions over time.
Economics as a field is often purported to be a neutral field because it's all about the "markets", duh.
But listening to this episode was really interesting because it highlighted how economics ignores a lot of social and racial dynamics. It also made me think of how Western economists recommend and help implement economic policies in Africa that just...don't work.
But back to the topic at hand. So the hypothesis of the research was that after the abolishment of slavery, many African Americans not only got educated, but also started inventing things.
You had some inventors registering tons of inventions despite the fact that they faced a lot of prejudice. And sometimes didn't get any recognition or had inventions credited to other people because, racism.
And the economist noted that sometime in the early 20th century, the number of inventions per African American dropped drastically. And so she looked at events like Jim Crow implementation, lynchings etc. and she hypothesized that these resulted in the drastic drop in inventions.
If you are not familiar with these, Jim Crow basically is the set of laws that institutionalized segregation in America.
And here is more info on the 1921 Tulsa Massacre where White mobs killed hundreds of African Americans within 24 hours in a racially motivated riot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre
In her paper, she explained that economists never factored such economic losses in the GDP and did not factor the economic impact of such a traumatic incident on the African American population over time.
But the fear this caused directly impacted African Americans. Being Black and "too smart" or "too wealthy" for your own good could literally get you killed.
And the complete lack of reaction from the US government signaled to Black people that not even the government would protect them or pursue justice.
In fact, it took several decades for the US government to even acknowledge the massacre.
In fact, it took several decades for the US government to even acknowledge the massacre.
The researcher noted that the massive drop in inventions occurred precisely around the time of the massacre. And the African American population never recovered. Not only did fewer Black inventors invent, but the US has never recorded the negative economic impact of this drop.
Here is a piece Vox released in 2019 on the massacre:
