1/n Inspired by @itsafronomics recent thread, I’m going to discuss how the neglect of analysis regarding race in econ harms our understanding of society and social injustice. A lot of research/commentary in recent years has been devoted to the rise and causes of ‘populism’.

2/n Firstly, it’s clear that the term ‘populism’ is effectively a euphemism for racism. Call a spade a spade! Secondly, the profession has consistently focused on only the economic causes of ‘populism’ and treated it as an unprecedented, abnormal event.

3/n But racism and its political implications have existed for centuries. Brexit, Trump’s election, and the rise of the far right in Europe is nothing new! Globalisation, economic insecurity, inequality or not, these events wouldn’t have occured w/o mobilising racial resentment.

4/n The signs were all there. Even after the US civil-rights movement, there was the GOP’s ‘southern strategy’ courting white voters using racism. Trump is the logical conclusion of that decades-long phenomenon. Bush’s war on terror was partly motivated by islamophobia too.

5/n The Tea-Party, and the gridlock in Congress under Obama. Would those have happened if not for a black president? There is a reason why the GOP’s main voting-bloc is white voters.

6/n Here in the UK, long before Brexit and UKIP, we had the far-right BNP. The BNP was not a ‘fringe movement’ (contrary to what the usual narrative is) - they had councillors all over the country. All Tory election campaigns under Blair’s gov focused on immigration too.

7/n However, the BNP was a product of neo-nazi, white-supremacist thugs. UKIP & the modern Eurosceptic movement was born out of the hard-right of the Tory party, so unlike the BNP, they had the backing of wealthy elites & the right-wing press, considerably aiding their advance.

8/n When we neglect our history, and retreat to the profession’s ‘comfort zone’ of emphasising the economic causes, naturally any focus on racism is marginalised. Without mentioning names, when the editor of an econ journal has little understanding of institutional racism...

9/n ...what does that reflect upon the wider discipline? The truth is, without attempting to understand racism, any efforts to understand social phenomena is pretty much pointless. We can’t reduce our understanding of power imbalances to class, or income/regional inequality.

10/n I don’t expect this thread to be popular at all, and I am just a student - right at the very bottom of the academic hierarchy. However, all of this needs to be said by someone. If other social sciences can integrate analysis of race into their work, then so can economics.