Calvin Schermerhorn
@calscherm.bsky.social
2.8K followers 2.3K following 91 posts
Author of The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made (2025) @yalepress. From Southern Maryland🍂. Teaches history in Arizona 🌵
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calscherm.bsky.social
“A carefully researched work of history that chronicles centuries of injustice while calling for an end to inequality. A historical examination of the origins of the ever-deepening divide between Black and white intergenerational wealth”-Kirkus; in print &audiobook yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
calscherm.bsky.social
Congratulations and happy Pub Day to @ktgerbs.bsky.social "Archival Irruptions" tells a new history of Obeah, an Afro-Caribbean religion that was criminalized in 1760 after the largest slave revolt in the 18th century British Empire
www.dukeupress.edu/archival-irr...
Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica
www.dukeupress.edu
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
yalepress.bsky.social
"Both books excel at showing how disproportionately Black wealth has suffered from both racist policy and financial shocks." @newrepublic.com reviews The Plunder of Black America by Calvin Schermerhorn
Racism Isn’t the Only Cause of the Racial Wealth Gap
Widening the lens to capitalism itself could yield insights on how to close the gap.
newrepublic.com
calscherm.bsky.social
"the only way to understand this country—the only way to love this country—is to tell the truth....that chattel slavery,which lasted in the British American colonies & then the American nation for nearly 250 years, was indeed quite bad" @clintsmithiii.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Actually, Slavery Was Very Bad
The president’s latest criticism of museums is a thinly veiled attempt to erase Black history.
www.theatlantic.com
calscherm.bsky.social
"the only way to understand this country—the only way to love this country—is to tell the truth about it. . . . chattel slavery, which lasted in the British American colonies and then the American nation for nearly 250 years, was indeed quite bad." -Clint Smith www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Actually, Slavery Was Very Bad
The president’s latest criticism of museums is a thinly veiled attempt to erase Black history.
www.theatlantic.com
calscherm.bsky.social
“every apparent step forward is matched by a quiet reversion—each gain followed by a new, more elusive form of loss. Redlining gives way to ‘predatory inclusion’….School desegregation in the cities sparks white flight“ -Idrees Kahloon on The Plunder of Black America
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
What We Miss When We Talk About the Racial Wealth Gap
Six decades of civil-rights efforts haven’t budged it, and the usual prescriptions—including reparations—offer no lasting solutions. Have we been focussing on the wrong things?
www.newyorker.com
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
motherjones.com
One reason so many American hospitals are struggling? Investors buy them up, then suck them dry, charging such high rents that services are gutted.
Reveal explores what happened to one Louisiana hospital when Medical Properties Trust came to town. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
The landlord gutting America’s hospitals
Medical Properties Trust buys up hospitals and then leases them back to health care systems. Dozens of its hospitals have gone belly up.
www.motherjones.com
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
charleshb.bsky.social
Broke-ish® with Erika( @brownerika.bsky.social )Brown & Amber Sims "Make it Make (Dollars and) Sense: What Malcolm X Taught Us About Money" Dr. Calvin( @calscherm.bsky.social )Schermerhorn #BlackLiberationMedia www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDMR...
Make it Make (Dollars and) Sense: What Malcolm X Taught Us About Money
YouTube video by Black Liberation Media
www.youtube.com
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
ebestes.bsky.social
Now more than ever, knowing our history - the good and the terrible - is vital for American democracy. I hope you will read and share my intro story in Verite News' new project about the slave trade in New Orleans. #NOLAsky #NOLA
veritenews.org/2025/05/29/d...
Devil's Bargain: How the slave trade built New Orleans
A new project from Verite News examines the role of the slave trade in building and sustaining New Orleans.
veritenews.org
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
kawulf.bsky.social
There are books. Somehow despite so many years of work I wasn’t quite prepared for actual books?!

Official pub next week. More coherence inc thanks for v lovely advance praise soon.
Stack of books showing spine, title Lineage, on a wooden tabletop.
calscherm.bsky.social
“Morrison came to appreciate the power of directly exploring the inner and outer dimensions of Black life….Morrison’s mode was to be relentlessly demanding—of herself, her authors, and her Random House colleagues.” —@clintsmithiii.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
How Toni Morrison Changed Publishing
At night, she worked on her novels. By day, as an editor at Random House, she championed a new generation of writers.
www.theatlantic.com
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
stevenbeschloss.bsky.social
I will be talking to the Rev. William Barber--one of our nation's leading moral voices and an important part of "No Kings"--on Substack Live at 12:30 ET today. I hope you'll join us. (If you're not a subscriber, free or paid, you can sign up here: america.substack.com)
America, America | Steven Beschloss | Substack
Essays of alarm and hope, on politics and society, democracy and justice. With passion and urgency. Click to read America, America, a Substack publication with hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
america.substack.com
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
calscherm.bsky.social
Dorothy A. Brown says The Plunder of Black America “sets out in clear and exquisite detail the huge obstacles placed in the path of African Americans who simply wanted to become self-sufficient & leave their children with brighter futures” lnkd.in/gXwhCUqs
GooglePlay play.google.com/store/audiob...
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
colsonwhitehead.com
Picked up a hitchhiker by the cemetery. When I dropped her off at her house - she disappeared! Her mom came out & said that on the anniversary of her death, Lisa always “comes home.” Yipes! I returned to the cemetery the next year and told Lisa about taxi-hailing apps. It’s not safe to hitchhike!
calscherm.bsky.social
“If a billionaire bought one of your local haunts,renamed it,humiliated the employees,brought back ppl who’d been banned for harassing other regulars,eliminated basic rules of decency..taking your business elsewhere wouldbe perfectly rational”@cwarzel.bsky.social‬ www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
What Are People Still Doing on X?
Imagine if your favorite neighborhood bar turned into a Nazi hangout.
www.theatlantic.com
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
slaveryarchive.bsky.social
It's here: #Slaveryarchive Most anticipated books of 2025. Pre-order. Repost. Spread the word. Schedule book talks. Assign. Read. www.slaveryarchive.com/most-anticip...
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
stevenbeschloss.bsky.social
You can read an excerpt of @calscherm.bsky.social’s “The Plunder of Black America” at the link below.
stevenbeschloss.bsky.social
We’ve faced a ridiculous amount of lies that there’s no structural or systemic racism in America. This book documents the scale of the racial wealth gap, how it happens, & reasons why this is a terrible burden for everyone who cares about equality and justice.
www.americaamerica.news/p/plundering...
Plundering Black America
An excerpt from an important new book chronicling the history of the racial wealth gap
www.americaamerica.news
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
civilwarmemory.bsky.social
More cruelty for cruelty's sake.

"A longstanding program connecting young adults from diverse backgrounds with summer jobs in the National Park Service was canceled indefinitely earlier this spring." www.sfgate.com/national-par...
'Biggest nightmare': National Park Service quietly kills program after 15 years
Attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion canceled this National Park Service program for diverse young adults.
www.sfgate.com
Reposted by Calvin Schermerhorn
calscherm.bsky.social
@stevenbeschloss.bsky.social excerpts "The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made" in a recent substack: www.americaamerica.news/p/plundering... Full disclosure: I wrote the book and thank Steven tremendously for the piece!
Plundering Black America
An excerpt from an important new book chronicling the history of the racial wealth gap
www.americaamerica.news
calscherm.bsky.social
I taught Reed and Story's "Fifteen Cents on the Dollar" in my class on the history of racial economic inequities in America. It's a brilliant yet challenging book; its subtle message is that the centuries-long racial wealth and income divide is extremely hard to narrow as their subjects discovered.