Today, on the show, a rare story that you wouldn't think would be so rare.

We decided to take a contrarian view and bet that bringing jobs to an area that hadn't

had opportunity would be a good business decision.

The experience of black people in the south side of the city is a unique experience.

Which about every big company says they want to create more opportunity for black Americans?

One company decided to do something very basic about it.

What do economists think of their idea?

Do you want the good news first?

We should applaud and even incentivize well-intended and good-behaving corporations or the bad

news.

I'm quite skeptical on the ability of PR campaigns to shape corporate America into improving economic

opportunity for all.

PR campaign, good-behaving corporation, or something else entirely.

You will have to decide for yourself, starting right now.

This is Freakonomics Radio, the podcast that explores the hidden side of everything,

with your host, Stephen Dubner.

Most big companies these days and small ones too are leaning hard into DEI programs that

stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

There was a lot of talk of systemic bias and systemic racism.

And I know those are sort of loaded terms, but for me it just meant that the racism and

the bias of previous decades reinforced itself in a system that continues to this day,

unless we do something to break the cycle.

...