Leslie McCall on Intersectional Inequality, AI, and Meritocracy

Inequality is often framed in terms of a binary: rich and poor, haves and have nots. But inequality between groups — based on gender, class, race, and so on — must be understood alongside inequalities within particular groups, at particular intersections of identity. Our guest today has contributed foundational work to this intellectual framework. She has also enriched our understanding of how Americans feel about their economic prospects in an era of high inequality.

Leslie McCall is a professor of sociology and political science at the CUNY Graduate Center and associate director of the Stone Center there. She is the author of Complex Inequality: Gender, Class, and Race in the New Economy, a landmark study of wage inequality, as well as her most recent book, The Undeserving Rich: American Beliefs About Inequality, Opportunity, and Redistribution, which chronicles Americans’ shifting attitudes about the economy. In this conversation with host Steven Durlauf, she discusses her work examining inequality and Americans’ beliefs about it, as well as what her findings might tell us about meritocracy and the effects of artificial intelligence on the labor market.