“Talking about race is hard. When you add the business implications, some people are too afraid to start the conversation. But we did. We started a dialogue,” says McCray, a Black woman from Chicago.

Brian Ratajczak (MBA 2022) was nervous, too. “If you are talking about finance, and someone says something you disagree with, there’s probably not going to be a lot of emotions stirred up,” says Ratajczak, a white man from Calabasas, California.

This case was different. It seemed impossible to separate emotions from the events that had occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 1, 1921, when a white mob killed an estimated 300 Black residents and destroyed homes and businesses along 35 square blocks.

Ratajczak spent more time than usual preparing for the discussion about this century-old crime. “I wanted to frame it in a way that could create debate, rather than in a way that rubbed people the wrong way or made them feel hurt,” he says. McCray had strong opinions on the case, but decided she would focus first on listening and learning from the different perspectives of her classmates.

The Tulsa case raises the question of how to address historic injustices. Ratajczak steered the conversation away from past harms to the Black community to current issues that stem from them. He wondered how payments could address modern inequities and if such payments should be available only to descendants. McCray, who sees herself as an agent of change, was most interested in policy solutions. When one classmate proposed dispersing reparations in the form of college scholarships, McCray voiced concern about overlooking those who don’t attend college. “College requires more than funds. It requires a better educational foundation. . . . So, unless the literacy rates increase overnight, providing a financial scholarship. . . [won’t override] years of systematic oppression.”

Desai, the Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance, was inspired to write the case after George Floyd’s killing in May 2020. He wanted to channel his frustration and realized that creating teaching material could be powerful. “Only by directly confronting the underlying issues and history can we understand the role of Black leaders in our society and the way they can flourish or not,” he explains.

Both students learned one of the many lessons Desai hoped the case would impart: the importance of having difficult conversations and approaching them with empathy. “I think it’s necessary for us as business leaders to not only practice talking about these issues . . . [but also] practice having conversations that aren’t easy,” observes Ratajczak. McCray adds, “That’s the sign of a great conversation; conflict but progressing the issues forward.”

Desai hopes the conversation about reparations will ripple out from HBS. To help make that happen, the School is offering free to the public a downloadable pdf of the case, plus a free teaching note for educators. In addition, a free multimedia version has already been viewed by over 10,000 people in 60 countries.