Speaker Series: Cary Martin Shelby

Professor Shelby will discuss several chapters of her upcoming book, Markets for Black Pain: Law and Marginalization as a Commodity, which introduces “Markets for Black Pain” as a novel theoretical construct contending that for-profit companies commodify Black Pain in ways that can lead to additional cycles of harm that spread to surrounding communities. Black Pain, the foundation of this construct, encompasses the multitude of individual and collective harms that Black people experience due to racism. Black Pain is its own distinct commodity, Shelby argues, given the ways in which it can be transformed into quantifiable and profitable units by for-profit companies. While the United States has historically relied on Black Pain to develop core aspects of its economy, this book provides a taxonomy of modern commodifiers of Black Pain that stem from privatization becoming a preferred public policy solution to the ongoing plight of racism. Black Pain, for example, can manifest itself through “food deserts,” experienced by predominantly Black communities enduring limited access to healthy food options. Market-based solutions invite private-sector participants to transform these food deserts into profitable units by receiving government subsidies in exchange for investing in grocery stores and other healthy food options within Black communities.

Although market-based solutions for the ongoing plight of Black Pain can be successful, they frequently create more of the same, particularly when community investment leads to community displacement in the form of gentrification. The “Markets for Black Pain” construct thus uniquely categorizes these additional harms as negative externalities, as they can cycle through entire communities despite community members themselves being excluded as direct participants within such transactions. While it might be assumed that these additional harms are exclusively borne by Black communities, this construct challenges this assumption by exploring how the resulting market failures can threaten financial stability for the broader economy and serve as catalysts for a range of systemic disruptions.

The theory introduced in this book as “Markets for Black Pain” builds on a rich discourse of scholarly works that integrate economic analysis into the ways in which race is defined and categorized within hierarchical structures. It further revolutionizes the operation of the law in numerous contexts by introducing market failures as an entirely new category of harm that can emanate from racism. Potential market failures of this kind are not recognized within the panoply of civil rights legislation designed to redress the harms arising from direct and systemic forms of racism. They are similarly missing from the additional federal and state laws that regulate commodifiers of Black Pain by managing internal governance conflicts and protecting external stakeholders. Markets for Black Pain therefore compels us to consider a more expansive list of regulatory solutions that move beyond the prevailing goal of making a damaged party whole. This book offers timely and compelling suggestions for preventing the systemic harms arising from these market failures, including strategic reparations and regulatory reforms based on pillars of transparency, access, diversity, and accountability.

To register, contact Sophie Kofman at skofman@abfn.org. 

Cary Martin Shelby joined Chicago-Kent College of Law as the Ralph Brill Endowed Chair Professor of Law in July 2023. She specializes in corporate and securities law and teaches a variety of courses such as Contracts, Business Associations, Securities Regulation, Corporate Finance, and a seminar on Investment Funds. Shelby was previously a professor of law at Washington and Lee University School of Law and served as a visiting associate professor of law with The George Washington University Law School during the spring 2021 semester. She was also the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law with Northwestern Pritzker School of Law during the 2022–2023 academic year.

Her research generally encompasses regulatory issues related to hedge funds and other pooled investment vehicles. It has utilized a range of theoretical frameworks to scrutinize the blurred distinctions between public and private investment funds resulting from financial innovation, retailization, and systemic risk. Her research has since expanded to explore intersections between race and systemic risk by examining the extent to which racism poses a threat to financial stability in ways that should be recognized by financial regulators. Shelby has published articles in Northwestern University Law Review, California Law Review, The Business Lawyer, Boston College Law Review, among other journals and periodicals. Shelby is currently under contract with Cambridge University Press for her forthcoming book project, Markets for Black Pain: Law and Marginalization as a Commodity.