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After the release of the U.S. Department of Labor employment statistics earlier this month, in April, the editor of the New York office asked me what stood out about me.
Like most American job journalists, I was amazed at how few job creation last month and how the report increased an employee’s anecdotal claims. scarcity. I paid special attention to the small number of people hired to work in leisure and hospitality, which I never answered the editor.
But along with all the others I forgot a more disturbing figure – unemployment rose among black Americans 9.7 percent, even if the unemployment rate is aggregate 6.1 percent. In the case of whites, that rate was 5.3 percent.
Since the assassination of George Floyd, America has re-evaluated discriminatory practices in the workplace and in policing, in housing and health policies, as well as in the repair of infrastructure. But I wonder if these changes, while fundamental, can significantly improve the lives of black people if economic reform is not even prioritized.
Unemployment among black Americans is almost always the same double whiter, this phenomenon is due to differences in educational opportunities and social networks, as well as discrimination at work. Historically, both images have tended at least in the same direction.
When the Covid crisis occurred more than a year ago, black Americans began to take advantage of the decade-long bull market. It seems then that the health crisis was directed at their communities, with the sectors where their jobs are piled up closed, including restaurants and retail markets, and dying at excessively high rates.
It remains to be seen whether the recovery of U.S. growth will also target black Americans, given how their economic needs are they tend to be left out.
White America began to emerge from the 2008 financial crisis in 2008, but was confronted by black America double-digit unemployment for many years. Some economists have blamed the Treasury Department for a two-tier recovery, saying Wall Street’s fears of inflation have driven rates to rise before disadvantaged workers return to the workforce.
Others say the slow recovery is another symptom of neglect of the economic needs of blacks over the centuries in America.
Shortly after the United States freed black slaves in 1865, ordered giving each of them “40 acres and a mule” to ensure their economic freedom as well (mules would be loans). That never materialized. Instead, a system of participation was created that kept the newly liberated people financially dependent on their former masters.
“I don’t think the black community has recovered from slavery,” says Trahern Crews, the organizer of Black Lives Matter Minnesota.
Crews says the government owes black Americans reparations for centuries of direct payments to slave descendants and investments in schools and health care institutions that serve black communities, similar to the $ 1.6 million paid by U.S. inmates to Japanese Americans. in the second world war.
Proponents say repairs are the best way to bridge the growing wealth gap between white and white American families. Such policies are highly controversial, but have garnered public support in recent years. The bill to form a federal commission to study the concept was approved by the House Judiciary Committee in April.
Ultimately, employment opportunity is a major issue for black Americans, according to Rashad Robinson, president of the activist organization Color of Change. “When we ask people what’s most important, they talk about jobs, they talk about pay, and they talk about being able to have a quality standard of living,” he says.
The Biden administration says it will not allow Covid’s recovery plans to act as a last resort he committed economic goals rather than based on the black unemployment rate, rather than the aggregate.
“It will not be possible to complete an economic recovery if some communities are left behind,” says Janelle Jones, chief economist in the Department of Labor.
taylor.rogers@ft.com
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