Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 74, No. 2, 2018, pp. 224--243 doi: 10.1111/josi.12266 This article is part of the Special Issue “Tell It Like It Is”: Commemorating the 50 th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Call to Behavioral Scientists, Andrew L. Stewart and Joseph Sweetman (Special Issue Editors). For a full listing of Special Issue papers, see: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ 10.1111/josi.2018.74.issue-2/issuetoc. Diversity, Discrimination, and Persistent Inequality: Hope for the Future through the Solidarity Economy Movement Myrtle P. Bell ∗ University of Texas at Arlington Joy Leopold University of Miami Daphne Berry University of Hartford Alison V. Hall Agnes Scott College Despite considerable attention to “valuing diversity” among scholars and prac- titioners, discrimination, exclusion, and inequality persist in American organiza- tions. In particular, similarly educated African Americans typically have higher unemployment and lower earnings than other groups, and continue to face dis- crimination in access to jobs and in treatment at work. Black-White wage gaps are higher than they were decades ago, and without significant change, the wealth gap will take centuries to bridge. The solidarity economy, an economic framework that encourages governance that creates equity, shared prosperity, power, and owner- ship may help provide jobs, help build wealth, and yield other positive outcomes in African American communities. Cooperation Jackson, operating under solidarity economy principles, aims to create sustainable community development, economic democracy, and community ownership in Jackson, Mississippi, a predominantly black city plagued by poverty and unemployment. We discuss ways in which the ∗ Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Myrtle P. Bell, Department of Management, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019-0467 [e-mail: mpbell@uta.edu]. 224 C  2018 The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues