This is the first in a series of interviews being initiated by the UMRA News to offer colleagues across the University an opportunity to share with us some of their experiences on being maroon and gold, and Black. Our first guest, Samuel L. Myers Jr., PhD, is the Roy Wilkins Professor of Human Relations and Social Justice in the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. An economist and pioneer in the use of applied econometric techniques, he has written and spoken extensively about what he has called “The Minnesota Paradox.” We begin with an excerpt from a statement Professor Myers released on June 5, following the killing of George Floyd. —Kristine Mortensen, editor

“Minnesota is one of the best places to live in America. … Surprisingly, Minnesota is also putatively one of the worst places for blacks to live. … Racially discriminatory policies [have become] institutionalized and “baked in” to the fabric of Minnesota life. … [And] when racism becomes institutionalized, you do not need individual racists for there to be structural racism.”

What year did you come to the University? What brought you here?
My family moved to Minnesota in 1992, when the offer of an endowed chair in the Humphrey School lured me away from my position at the University of Maryland, College Park, where I was director of the Afro-American Studies Program and a professor in the Department of Economics. I came reluctantly because I am a native Marylander, my father’s house was around the corner from mine, and he had planted his fruit trees in my backyard.

I thought if I could solve problems anywhere, Minnesota was the place to be. Part of the excitement about moving was related to the endowed chair named in honor of Minnesota native son Roy Wilkins, who led the NAACP through the tumultuous years of the civil rights movement from the 1950s through the 1970s. Another exciting aspect of the offer was the more than 200 individual donors—mostly from the local Minnesota community—to the endowed chair. I thought that if I could solve any problems anywhere, Minnesota was the place to be.

What was something about Minnesota that surprised you when you got here?
Two things surprised me greatly. The first was the fierce competition between Minneapolis and St. Paul. There were advocates from Minneapolis who insisted that it would be dishonorable to live anywhere except Minneapolis. There were local leaders and community activists who claimed that a better place to raise children and for a stable life was St. Paul. 

Then, there was the real estate agent who tried to steer me away from certain neighborhoods, saying things like, “You really don’t want to live there!” or “Blacks are not welcome there.” 

The second thing that surprised me was that after one of my first major speeches was covered by the local media, I received some hate mail in my home mailbox. It was vulgar and profane and ended with “We know where you live.” The surprise was not receiving the hate mail. The surprise was the reaction from three high-ranking University officials, including the provost, who came to my house to express alarm and condolences about the racist letter. 

To this day, I remain puzzled by why there was a swift and immediate reaction to a single hate letter and not to the broader concerns that leaders in the Black community had raised.

Describe one experience that exemplifies what it is like for you today to be maroon and gold, and Black.
I am extremely proud of the fact that the Humphrey School has a seminar room called the “Wilkins Room” named after the University of Minnesota graduate Roy Wilkins, who was the night editor of the Minnesota Daily in 1926. The seminar room is adorned with pictures of Roy Wilkins and Hubert Humphrey, Martin Luther King Jr., Whitney Young, and even Wilkins’ young Omega Psi Phi fraternity brothers on the campus during the 1920s.

Please explain the difference, as you see it, between racism and discrimination.
Racism is a belief in the inherent inferiority of an individual because of racial group membership. Racial discrimination is differential treatment of equally endowed individuals because of their racial group membership. Racism is about beliefs. Discrimination occurs when one acts on those beliefs. Note that there can be racism without discrimination, and discrimination without racism.

How do you, as an economist, see the impact of discrimination on individuals and society?
Some measurable part of most racial disparities can be explained by legitimate or economically relevant factors. But determining the unmeasured part or the unobserved part is [also] relevant for anti-discrimination enforcement policies. 

One of the major achievements of the civil rights movement was to make racial discrimination in most markets illegal. But, if we don’t believe that the cause of a racial disparity is discrimination, then we won’t focus on enforcing anti-discrimination laws!

What is one thing members of UMRA can do—as individuals or advocates for the University—to make Minnesota a better place for all?
Contribute to the Josie Robinson Johnson Fellowship. Once that is fully funded, I want to help endow a Roy Wilkins Prize for Scholarship on Racial and Ethnic Economic Inequality. I also want to raise funds for a Roy Wilkins Post-Doctoral Fellowship that acknowledges recently minted PhDs who show great promise in contributing to policy analysis on race and inequality.

Professor Myers’ most recent book is Race neutrality: rationalizing remedies to racial inequality, coauthored with Inhyuck Ha and published by Lanham, Lexington Books in 2018.