In May and June, while employment for White people rebounded, Black and Latinx people saw only a very slight recovery. Unemployment doesn’t just cause economic harm. It is linked to mental health issues, substance abuse, and a spike in suicides. And long-term unemployment for young Black men is deeply tied to mass incarceration, as well as displacement and gentrification.³ We’re heading into a period of deep economic suffering for many and especially for Black folks in America -- where we’ll see evictions, layoffs, homelessness, dropping out of school, and worse. A quick survey shows that all of this hits non-Whites worse than Whites: we’re more likely to be renters, more likely to lose our jobs, more likely to be renters and housing-vulnerable, less likely to get small business loans. I want our elected officials to start talking about structural Black unemployment. Because as we care for each other and work to reduce the harm from this depression, we’ve also got to build a better system. Any “recovery” that leaves Black men with a structural higher unemployment rate than White folks is a failure. We need to start seeing progress soon, and our policymakers CAN do something about it. Long-term, we need to see debt forgiveness and look at other ways of addressing the wealth gap. We need to end mass incarceration and provide more and better training and job opportunities for Black folks (and of course Latinx folks and immigrants too). We need employers and regulators to enforce anti-discrimination laws in hiring and employment. And none of that can happen until our leaders start talking honestly about Black unemployment. |
