The Empty Calories of Capitalism | Marcia Chatelain

Dr. Marcia Chatelain is a historian and professor at Georgetown University specializing in African-American life and culture. Her latest book, Franchise, investigates the relationship that grew between McDonald’s and black communities across America following the Civil Rights movement. What does black wealth look like under American capitalism? And is true equality ever possible? (34m 21s)

Marcia’s Bio

Marcia is currently a Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor of History and African American Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.  Previously, she was a Reach for Excellence Assistant Professor of Honors and African American Studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.  She is a proud native of Chicago, Illinois, and is an even prouder graduate of the following schools: St. Ignatius College Prep, the University of Missouri-Columbia (B.A. Journalism/Religious Studies), and Brown University (A.M. and Ph.D., American Civilization).  She’s a scholar of African-American life and culture, and her first book South Side Girls: Growing up in the Great Migration (Duke University Press, 2015) reimagined the mass exodus of black Southerners to the urban North from the perspective of girls and teenage women.

Her latest book, Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America  examines the intersection of the post-1968 civil rights struggle and the rise of fast food industry. The book will appear in early 2020 from Liveright, an imprint of W.W. Norton and Company.

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