Message to 99.7% of Econ professors: This coming academic year, do NOT attempt to teach about race, racism, or racial inequality. Just don’t. Even if you’ve published papers on it. Respect this as a body of knowledge and refer students to appropriate academic units.

We owe our students the truth. And the truth is econ is not a discipline that has created an abundance of high quality race scholarship. The high quality work that exists has been marginalized in the field. If you’re going to say anything, say that. And admit you haven’t read it

This is not a moment for hubris where you note the few papers you found interesting. This is an academic field that very few economists are literate in. Be honest with your students (and yourself) and admit race is an area where our discipline has failed. Miserably.

You may want to discuss WHY this is so. Admit that Econ has operated in a way that has been actively anti-black in its disciplinary culture and scholarship. So when the world demands input from economists on these issues, we have precious little to say.

All is not lost. There (should) be very good race social science courses in departments of African American Studies, sociology, education, and sometimes in political science, psychology, anthropology, and communication depending on faculty. Perhaps in the future we’ll be useful