ForbesBLK Newsletter: This Juneteenth, Economist Darity Says Freedom Has A $16 Trillion Price Tag

Editor’s Note: This is the published version of ForbesBLK newsletter, which offers the latest news and events surrounding the Black community. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox every Friday! Happy Juneteenth, ForbesBLK . Ali Jackson-Jolley here. My new mantra this week comes courtesy of New York Knicks captain Jalen Brunson: Chip Away. Down nearly 30 points in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Brunson kept making plays, eventually leading New York to a 107-106 victory over the Spurs. When asked about his mentality in that moment, he said there really wasn't much to say at that point. “It was really just, we need to chip away,” Brunson says. But today is Juneteenth, and "chip away" landed differently for me this morning. The holiday marks the day the last enslaved Black Americans learned they were legally free. Financial emancipation, though, is still very much in progress. Across the ForbesBLK community, the leaders doing that work will tell you the same thing: it is not done for ourselves alone. It is done for the community, for the generations who will inherit whatever we build, or fail to build right now. That sentiment is exactly what Dr. William “Sandy” Darity Jr. brought to our recent conversation. A visiting professor at Howard University and Samuel DuBois Cook Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Duke, Dr. Darity is one of the country's leading economists and an expert on the racial wealth gap. I asked him what financial freedom for Black America would actually require in 2026. His response took me to school. The gap between Black and White household wealth in the United States is approximately $1.15 million per household, according to Federal Reserve data. That translates to roughly $400,000 per person. Multiply that by the 40 million Black Americans whose ancestors were enslaved in this country, and you arrive at a minimum reparations figure of $16 trillion. That is the floor, Dr. Darity and his co-author, Kirsten Mullen, have calculated what it would take to realistically close the gap. When discussing baby bonds, a policy that has gotten considerable attention, Dr. Darity, who helped develop the concept alongside economist Darrick Hamilton, was frank. Baby bonds can moderate inequality across the full population. However, they are calibrated to the median, not the mean. That distinction matters. Ninety-seven percent of the nation's wealth sits above the median, which means a program anchored to the middle does not touch most of the gap. It is not a substitute for reparations; it was never designed to be one. On the subject of entrepreneurship and autonomous community wealth-building: There are approximately 18 Black-owned banks in the United States, with (an estimated) combined assets of roughly $10 billion. JPMorgan Chase alone holds 4.2 trillion in assets under management (as of December 2025). The gap exists not just between individuals but between the institutions themselves. The thing is, do not expect to see a comprehensive reparations plan in this decade, Dr. Darity adds. But there is room for optimism—white American support for reparations has grown from 4% in 2000 to nearly 28% today. Not enough, but a step forward. A chip here, a chip there. Every small inch counts. On this Juneteenth, Dr. Darity’s work is a reminder that freedom has a price tag, and we should know exactly what it is.