us, i on worldwide economies. here in the us, i would on worldwide economies. here in the us. i would say on worldwide economies. here in the us, i would say oil on worldwide economies. here in the us, i would say oil and on worldwide economies. here in the us, i would say oil and gas us, i would say oil and gas production is still up, it is still booming production is still up, it is still booming. we have also balance that out with booming. we have also balance that out with solar and wind tax credits that have out with solar and wind tax credits that have been a boon to our green energy that have been a boon to our green energy economy. so there is definitely a balance to be struck here definitely a balance to be struck here and definitely a balance to be struck here and i m not sure if that is entirely here and i m not sure if that is entirely what the plan that was put out by entirely what the plan that was put out by shell is going to achieve. but i out b
that the amount at minimum should be sufficient to illuminate the racial wealth gap. that s where we come to the 14 trillion dollar figure. the third thing it should indicate is that the federal government should bear full responsibility for meeting the bill for reparations. and the final pillar of a sound reparations plan must be an indication that would prioritize giving the money to eligible recipients in a direct fashion. so, they d have full discretion over how it s spent. going out to to at least consider reparations. i ve seen where you said that america has the capacity to consider the totality of its history. not just for parts that feel good, or that support a kindf fantasy about our nations past. how do you explain the push within many red states to batten books on academic courses that do exactly that?
amplifying a roadmap to an issue that goes back to the civil war. joining me now is one of the authors, duke university professor, william directly, black reparations. project for racial justice. professor diary, thank you for joining us tonight. you calculated the wealth gap between black and white americans to be about 14 trillion dollars. it sounds like a staggering sum. but you say that once the number is broken down. that it comes out to about $800,000 per black family. 330,000 per individual. of course you say that that s i tend to agree with you. formalities, can you briefly breakdown how you arrived at this number? yes, quite straightforward. hysterectomy where consumer finances, which is issued by the federal reserve have
re-three years. the most recent version of the survey came out in 2019. it generated an estimate that the average black households had a net worth that was about $841,000 less than the average white household. so, that differential translates to a figure of closer to $315,000 per person. we approximate that there s about 40 million black americans and the united states whose ancestors were enslaved hair. , so if you simply multiply 40 million by $350,000. you get to the 14 trillion dollar figure. you know what i, think a lot of americans don t understand what we say ancestors. they think we re talking about prehistoric time. i remember in 2007 and a local newspaper in new york came to me wanting to do my family tree. they came back and brought me
reparations, in terms of monetary reparations being demanded in states like california be given. there was a bill put into congress by democrats demanding $14 trillion of reparations. i mean before we get to that, i think we probably should have that national debate. well, let alone the problem that quest regarding the research that supposedly went into the 1619 project which has themselves been widely reported both by liberals and conservatives i might add. right, the queen19 project was criticized by historians because it suggested that the american revolution was primarily motivated is a conflict over slavery. that s not true. and there were corrections made in the 1619 project, but it still received the pugh itser prize. but the point here is not that