The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Joe W. Trotter, Jr. will deliver the 2021 Diaspora Lecture and discuss his latest publication Workers on Arrival: Black Labor and the Making of America. From the ongoing issues of poverty, health, housing and employment to the recent upsurge of lethal police-community relations, the Black working class stands at the center of perceptions of social and racial conflict today. Journalists and public policy analysts often discuss the Black poor as “consumers” rather than “producers,” as “takers” rather than “givers,” and as “liabilities” instead of “assets.” In Workers on Arrival, Trotter refutes these perceptions by charting the black working class’s vast contributions to the making of America.