Andrew Kahrl
@akahrl.bsky.social
Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Virginia, author of The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America
I am happy to share the news that my book The Black Tax was named the winner of the Lizabeth Cohen Prize for Best Book on Cities and Political Power and received an Honorable Mention for the Kenneth Jackson Award for Best Book in North American Urban History from the Urban History Association
2025 Award Winners
www.urbanhistory.org
September 5, 2025 at 1:13 PM
I am happy to share the news that my book The Black Tax was named the winner of the Lizabeth Cohen Prize for Best Book on Cities and Political Power and received an Honorable Mention for the Kenneth Jackson Award for Best Book in North American Urban History from the Urban History Association
New reporting on the main issues covered in my book The Black Tax. This piece also echoes my argument on the effects of further cuts to local governments at the federal level: that it will make all of the regressive and predatory features of local tax policy and administration much, much worse.
'Highballed': How disproportionate property taxes are forcing some Americans out of their homes
An analysis of real estate data by ABC Owned Television Stations shows that homeowners in majority-nonwhite neighborhoods tend to pay disproportionate property taxes.
abcnews.go.com
August 3, 2025 at 11:04 PM
New reporting on the main issues covered in my book The Black Tax. This piece also echoes my argument on the effects of further cuts to local governments at the federal level: that it will make all of the regressive and predatory features of local tax policy and administration much, much worse.
NYC will resume selling tax liens to Wall St investors on May 20. My piece in Jacobin on what that means for the city's most vulnerable renters and homeowners and what it says about neoliberal local governance in America today.
When Cities Partner With Predatory Financial Ghouls
When people fall behind on property taxes, this shouldn’t become an opportunity for private profiteering. But that’s precisely what happens in tax lien sales, where city governments collude with finan...
jacobin.com
May 15, 2025 at 6:04 PM
NYC will resume selling tax liens to Wall St investors on May 20. My piece in Jacobin on what that means for the city's most vulnerable renters and homeowners and what it says about neoliberal local governance in America today.
I'll be talking about The Black Tax and NYC's decision to resume selling its tax liens to Wall Street at Mount Ararat Church in Brooklyn this Saturday at 11am.
May 8, 2025 at 5:40 PM
I'll be talking about The Black Tax and NYC's decision to resume selling its tax liens to Wall Street at Mount Ararat Church in Brooklyn this Saturday at 11am.
Reposted by Andrew Kahrl
NEW: Professor @akahrl.bsky.social, author of "The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America," discusses his argument that local property taxes have contributed to the disenfranchisement of Black homeowners.
🎧 Listen here: www.buzzsprout.com/124942/episo...
🎧 Listen here: www.buzzsprout.com/124942/episo...
Tax or Theft? Examining the History of the Property Tax - Tax Notes Talk
Professor Andrew Kahrl, author of The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America, discusses his argument that local property taxes have contributed to the disenfranchise...
www.buzzsprout.com
April 4, 2025 at 2:42 PM
NEW: Professor @akahrl.bsky.social, author of "The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America," discusses his argument that local property taxes have contributed to the disenfranchisement of Black homeowners.
🎧 Listen here: www.buzzsprout.com/124942/episo...
🎧 Listen here: www.buzzsprout.com/124942/episo...
A lengthy and generous review of The Black Tax in Forbes magazine. Grateful to reviewer Joe Thorndike for engagement with my work
Is The ‘Predatory’ Property Tax An Instrument Of Oppression?
Joseph J. Thorndike reviews "The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America" by Andrew Kahrl.
www.forbes.com
March 24, 2025 at 5:56 PM
A lengthy and generous review of The Black Tax in Forbes magazine. Grateful to reviewer Joe Thorndike for engagement with my work
Reposted by Andrew Kahrl
Perspective: @joethorndike.bsky.social reviews "The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America" by @akahrl.bsky.social, which explores the ways in which local property taxes have been used as an instrument of systemic racial inequality.
Is The ‘Predatory’ Property Tax An Instrument Of Oppression?
Joseph J. Thorndike reviews The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America by Andrew Kahrl.
www.forbes.com
March 24, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Perspective: @joethorndike.bsky.social reviews "The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America" by @akahrl.bsky.social, which explores the ways in which local property taxes have been used as an instrument of systemic racial inequality.
Excited to share that The Black Tax has been named a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize in History
Andrew Garfield, Percival Everett and Attica Locke among L.A. Times Book Prize finalists
Andrew Garfield, Percival Everett and Attica Locke are among the finalists for the 45th Los Angeles Times Book Prizes.
www.latimes.com
February 19, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Excited to share that The Black Tax has been named a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize in History
Reposted by Andrew Kahrl
For 150 years, all over the country, Black Americans have paid disproportionately higher property taxes while receiving far fewer public services, but due to a Depression-Era law, they've been unable to seek redress against discriminatory property tax assessments via SCOTUS.
With @akahrl.bsky.social
With @akahrl.bsky.social
The Racist History of Property Taxes in the United States
After emancipation, formerly enslaved Black Americans knew that the key to economic freedom was land ownership, but as soon as they began to acquire land, local tax…
www.unsunghistorypodcast.com
February 17, 2025 at 8:26 PM
For 150 years, all over the country, Black Americans have paid disproportionately higher property taxes while receiving far fewer public services, but due to a Depression-Era law, they've been unable to seek redress against discriminatory property tax assessments via SCOTUS.
With @akahrl.bsky.social
With @akahrl.bsky.social
Important new piece by Brookings, arguing that the same features of local tax systems that disadvantaged the poor and racial minorities and fueled place-based inequality in the past--the subject of my book The Black Tax--will only deepen as the effects of climate change worsen.
Climate change demands a long-overdue reform of the property tax system
Reforms for property taxation are desperately needed as communities across America feel the impact of climate change.
www.brookings.edu
January 18, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Important new piece by Brookings, arguing that the same features of local tax systems that disadvantaged the poor and racial minorities and fueled place-based inequality in the past--the subject of my book The Black Tax--will only deepen as the effects of climate change worsen.
Made some news in 2024, among other Kenyon alums
Kenyon Newsmakers in 2024
Authors, an astrophysicist and Abraham Lincoln’s right-hand man were just a few of the people with ties to the College who made headlines this year.
www.kenyon.edu
December 19, 2024 at 10:42 PM
Made some news in 2024, among other Kenyon alums
Reposted by Andrew Kahrl
United and Optum declined a request ProPublica made more than a month ago for an on-the-record interview about their coverage of behavioral health care and did not answer our questions, citing the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
December 13, 2024 at 2:08 PM
United and Optum declined a request ProPublica made more than a month ago for an on-the-record interview about their coverage of behavioral health care and did not answer our questions, citing the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Reposted by Andrew Kahrl
This is what's so baffling about so many suggestions for AI in the humanities classroom: they mistake the product for the point. Writing outlines and essays is important not because you need to make outlines and essays but because that's how you learn to think with/through complex ideas.
I'm sure many have said this before but I'm reading a student-facing document about how students might use AI in the classroom (if allowed) and one of the recs is: use AI to make an outline of your reading! But ISN'T MAKING THE OUTLINE how one actually learns?
December 11, 2024 at 10:43 PM
This is what's so baffling about so many suggestions for AI in the humanities classroom: they mistake the product for the point. Writing outlines and essays is important not because you need to make outlines and essays but because that's how you learn to think with/through complex ideas.
Excited to share this review essay of The Black Tax in Public Books
The Poverty of Homeownership
On both sides of the color line, to own one’s home remains synonymous with freedom—even as real estate has repeatedly been proven a relentless driver of inequality.
www.publicbooks.org
December 4, 2024 at 11:56 PM
Excited to share this review essay of The Black Tax in Public Books