As new data shows early signs of economic recovery, black workers are being left out

As the U.S. struggles to make its way past the damage done by the coronavirus pandemic, lawmakers are considering policies that may offer additional relief to disadvantaged workers in the near-term, such as an extension of the unemployment benefits supplied by the CARES Act, and a possible second round of stimulus checks.

For programs designed to provide temporary relief or make longer-term contributions to narrowing the employment gap, Wilson notes the importance of making sure policies actually hit their targets.

“We really need to be aware and have to assume that no policy is race neutral because of all of these preexisting and underlying disparities generated by previous policy and legal decisions,” she said. “In making policy, there should always be an eye toward how it will impact different communities.”

Many, particularly on the left, say that regardless of specific policies, change will require the recognition of systemic inequalities, a point that has been central in the protests over George Floyd’s death.

At Floyd’s Minneapolis memorial service held on Thursday, the civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton made such a point by analogizing widespread systemic injustice against black Americans to the officer’s knee held against Floyd’s neck during his Memorial Day arrest, which prosecutors have alleged contributed to his death. 

“Ever since 401 years ago, the reason we could never be who we wanted and dreamed of being is you kept your knee on our neck,” Sharpton said, referring to 1619, the year generally understood as the beginning of black slavery in the colonies that would become the United States. He added: “We could run corporations and not hustle in the street, but you had your knee on our neck. We had creative skills, we could do whatever anybody else could do, but we couldn’t get your knee off our neck.”

Nicole Smith, the chief economist at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, said that it’s frustrating that “most people recognize what it is, but are still reluctant to do anything about it.”

“And that’s because doing anything about it would really require us to engage in a serious conversation about social justice,” she said. 

On that point, Trump and Biden, the former vice president, are a study in contrasts.

While Trump has argued that an economic recovery will, on its own, benefit black Americans, Biden has pressed for specifically targeting black communities with economic assistance, and collecting data on the race and sex of beneficiaries of federal recovery programs.

During an address in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Biden, who has faced scrutiny over his record on race, said the “moment has come for our nation to deal with systemic racism.”

“To deal with the growing economic inequality in our nation. And to deal with the denial of the promise of this nation — to so many,” Biden said. 

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/05/coronavirus-recovery-black-workers-are-being-left-out-data-shows.html