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Andrew Kahrl

@akahrl

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

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23.10.2023
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Latest posts by Andrew Kahrl @akahrl

2025 Award Winners

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

05.09.2025 13:13 πŸ‘ 119 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 10 πŸ“Œ 1
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'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.

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.

03.08.2025 23:04 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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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...

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.

15.05.2025 18:04 πŸ‘ 19 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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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.

08.05.2025 17:40 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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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...

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...

04.04.2025 14:42 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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Is The β€˜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.

A lengthy and generous review of The Black Tax in Forbes magazine. Grateful to reviewer Joe Thorndike for engagement with my work

24.03.2025 17:56 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Is The β€˜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.

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.

24.03.2025 16:05 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

You can thank private equity for that outrageous bill

21.02.2025 22:21 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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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.

Excited to share that The Black Tax has been named a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize in History

19.02.2025 17:13 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
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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…

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

17.02.2025 20:26 πŸ‘ 29 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Congratulations! Sadly, infuriatingly, could not be more relevant.

11.02.2025 11:59 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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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.

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.

18.01.2025 14:24 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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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.

Made some news in 2024, among other Kenyon alums

19.12.2024 22:42 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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. They have not answered questions emailed 11 days ago, citing the Dec. 4 killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO as the reason. In an email, a spokesperson said β€œwe are in mourning” and could not engage with a β€œnon-urgent story during this incredibly difficult moment in time.” Offered an additional day or two, the company would not agree to a deadline for comment.

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. They have not answered questions emailed 11 days ago, citing the Dec. 4 killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO as the reason. In an email, a spokesperson said β€œwe are in mourning” and could not engage with a β€œnon-urgent story during this incredibly difficult moment in time.” Offered an additional day or two, the company would not agree to a deadline for comment.

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.

13.12.2024 14:08 πŸ‘ 282 πŸ” 47 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 3

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.

11.12.2024 22:43 πŸ‘ 7273 πŸ” 2288 πŸ’¬ 153 πŸ“Œ 284
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The Poverty of Homeownership On both sides of the color line, to own one’s home remains synonymous with freedomβ€”even as real estate has repeatedly been proven a relentless driver of inequality.

Excited to share this review essay of The Black Tax in Public Books

04.12.2024 23:56 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

WKCO 91.9 FM, Kenyon College, 1997-2001

16.11.2024 15:43 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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The Black Tax Revealing a history that is deep, broad, and infuriating, The Black Tax casts a bold light on the racist practices long hidden in the shadows of America’s tax regimes. Β  American taxation is unfair, a...
14.11.2024 01:10 πŸ‘ 14 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0