The Black Tax

The Taxcast

In this episode: we go to the US to look at how African Americans were overtaxed and dispossessed - a lesser known story of struggles against tax injustice, from the experience of George Floyd's great great grandfather to this day. Taxcast host Naomi Fowler speaks to historian and author Andrew W Kahrl of The Black Tax: 150 years of theft, exploitation, and dispossession in America:

"Every stage of the research on this book was one revelation after another. These legalized forms of theft actually happened at far greater frequency than historians have ever really recognized. Historically, and still today, taxes are both a problem in the US, but they're also the solution."

Plus: the OECD ignores a formal letter from UN human rights experts raising concerns about the detrimental and discriminatory impacts on the Global South of OECD and G20 tax policy:

"There has been no response. One way to describe it would be to say it's disappointing. Another way to describe it would say it's shocking and downright unacceptable."

Transcript of the show: https://podcasts.taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Transcript_Taxcast-June-2024.pdf (some is automated)

Further Reading:

OECD tax reforms risk violating human rights law, UN experts warn in special intervention:

https://taxjustice.net/press/oecd-tax-reforms-risk-violating-human-rights-law-un-experts-warn-in-special-intervention/

Formal letter from UN Human Rights experts to the OECD raising human rights concerns over tax reforms: https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=28676

Litany of failure: new briefing sets out OECD’s manifold shortcomings in international tax talks: https://taxjustice.net/2024/05/28/litany-of-failure-new-briefing-sets-out-oecds-manifold-shortcomings-in-international-tax-talks/

The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America by Andrew W. Kahrl: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-black-tax-150-years-of-theft-exploitation-and-dispossession-in-america-andrew-w-kahrl/7592145?ean=9780226730592

The living new deal: a website with a collection of all the public infrastructure, bridges, roads, swimming pools, community centres etc that were built during the 1930s and 40s: https://livingnewdeal.org/

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Souls of Black Folk, by W. E. B. Du Bois: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/408/408-h/408-h.htm

All our podcasts are available with more information on https://podcasts.taxjustice.net/production/taxcast/ and you can find all our other podcasts (all separate monthly productions in Arabic, French, Portuguese and Spanish) here https://podcasts.taxjustice.net/