How Structural Racism Fuels American Monopolies

The inspiration for this season of Building Local Power is ILSR's Power Play report, written by ILSR senior editor and researcher Susan Holmberg. Sue joins us today for a wide-ranging and candid conversation about the report and its main finding: that monopolies leverage systemic racism to build and retain their power. Our conversation ties together the previous conversations in our Power Play series, from organizing an Amazon warehouse to consumer redlining to the inequitable environmental harm of AI data centers. Sue discusses the monstrous costs of monopoly power to communities of color and the interconnected ways corporate power can ensnare these communities. But it's not all doom and gloom. Sue, like her report, has much to say about legislative and community fixes to the problem of monopoly power and structural racism. If you want to know not only how monopolies damage communities of color but also how to fix it, this conversation is a must-listen. For the full transcript and related resources, visit the episode page: https://ilsr.org/articles/blp-structural-racism-fuels-american-monopolies

Om Podcasten

At the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, we work to break the chains of monopoly power in all sectors of our economy. From challenging incumbent cable monopolies in order to promote better Internet connectivity to pointing out how Amazon pushes local retailers out of the market, our researchers develop positive policy prescriptions to improve local economies. This podcast series provides a first glimpse at some of our newest original research and a unique economic perspective on today's most pressing topics.