Glenn Cartman Loury, (born September 3, 1948) is an American economist, academic, and author. He is the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences at Brown University, where he has taught since 2005 also as a professor of economics.[2] At the age of 33, Loury became the first African American professor of economics at Harvard University to gain tenure.
Loury achieved prominence during the Reagan Era as a leading black conservative intellectual.[3][4] In the mid-1990s, following a period of seclusion, he adopted more progressive views.[5] Loury has somewhat re-aligned with views of the American right, with The New York Times describing his political orientation in 2020 as "conservative-leaning."[6][7][8]
Early life and education
Loury was born on September 3, 1948,[9] in the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, growing up in a redlined neighborhood. Before going to college he fathered two children, and supported them with a job in a printing plant. When he wasn't working he took classes at Southeast Junior College, where he won a scholarship to study at Northwestern University.[10][11]
Loury became an assistant professor of economics at Northwestern University after receiving his doctorate. In 1979, he moved to teach at the University of Michigan, and was promoted to full professor of economics in 1980.
In 1982, at age 33, Loury became the first black tenured professor of economics in the history of Harvard University.[3]
He moved to Harvard's Kennedy School of Government after two years.[14] While at Kennedy school he would befriend William Bennett and Bill Kristol[3]
(He later said in an interview that his economics appointment was a mistake because he "wasn’t yet fully established as a scientist".[15])
Loury was arrested for drug possession in December 1987, six months after his assault and battery charges on Pamela Foster.[17] After a subsequent period of seclusion and self-reflection, Loury reemerged as a born-again Christian and described himself as a "black progressive."[18]
Loury left Harvard in 1991 to go to Boston University, where he headed the Institute on Race and Social Division. In 2005, Loury left Boston University for Brown University, where he was named a professor in the Economics Department, and a research associate of the Population Studies and Training Center.
On a 2017 episode of the Sam Harris podcast Making Sense, Loury stated that while he used to be "a Reagan conservative", he now thought of himself as a "centrist Democrat, or maybe a mildly right-of-center Democrat".[22]The New York Times has described Loury as "conservative-leaning" and The Wall Street Journal as a "Reagan Republican".[23][24]
On January 9, 2007, Loury spoke out against increasing the number of US troops in Iraq.[25]
Loury opposes reparations for slavery and affirmative action.[16][33] He has said that "affirmative action is not the solution, but neither is it the problem".[34] Conversely, he has criticized affirmative action saying, "Affirmative action is dishonest. It’s not about equality, it’s about covering ass."[35][36]
In 1984, Loury drew the attention of critics with "A New American Dilemma," published in The New Republic, a piece in which he addressed what he termed "fundamental failures in black society" such as "the lagging academic performance of black students, the disturbingly high rate of black-on-black crime, and the alarming increase in early unwed pregnancies among blacks."[37]
In June 2020, Loury published a rebuttal to a letter that Brown University president Christina Paxson sent to students and alumni in response to the murder of George Floyd by a policeman. Loury questioned the purpose of Paxson's letter, saying it either "affirmed platitudes to which we can all subscribe, or, more menacingly, it asserted controversial and arguable positions as though they were axiomatic certainties."[38]
Immigration
On immigration, Loury said in an interview segment in The First Measured Century, "There are benefits of immigration, and there are also costs. The benefits in terms of cheaper, eager labor to help we Americans produce the products that we want to consume. The costs are in terms of making it more difficult to equalize the economic circumstances of some Americans who are at the bottom of the heap, because they now have more competition for their labor, as a result of immigration."[39]
Loury fathered two children as a teenager with his first wife, Charlene.[45] He also has a son from another relationship, Alden, who serves as data projects editor for WBEZ in Chicago.
In 2024, Loury announced his diagnosis of arthritis and stenosis of the lower-mid spine. He underwent surgery on April 11, 2024, and plans further surgical treatments.[47]
Publications
Loury, Glenn Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative, New York: Norton. 2024
Loury, Glenn; Modood, Tariq; Teles, Steven (2005). Ethnicity, Social Mobility and Public Policy: Comparing the US and the UK. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN978-0-521-82309-8.
Loury, Glenn; Karlan, Pamela; Wacquant, Loic; Shelby, Tommie (2008). Race, Incarceration, and American Values. A Boston review book. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN978-0-262-12311-2.
^Angelica Spertini (May 15, 2006). "Glenn C. Loury Biography"(PDF). econ.brown.edu. Archived from the original(PDF) on September 10, 2008. Retrieved October 31, 2008.
^Shatz, Adam (January 20, 2002). "About Face". The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Archived from the original on July 14, 2022. Retrieved July 14, 2022.
^ abShatz, Adam (January 20, 2002). "About Face". The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Archived from the original on July 14, 2022. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
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