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A note from EPI’s Kirstyn Flood: The murder of George Floyd, and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that followed, shed light on the racial injustice and economic inequality that disproportionately affects the Black community. EPI experts weigh in on this reality and on what needs to be done.
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A new report by Director of EPI’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy Valerie Wilson and Senior Economist Elise Gould explores how racial and economic inequality have left many Black workers with few good options for protecting both their health and economic well-being during the coronavirus pandemic. Persistent racial disparities in health status, access to health care, wealth, employment, wages, housing, income, and poverty all contribute to greater susceptibility to the virus—both economically and physically.
The authors explain there are three main groups of workers in the COVID-19 economy:
- Those who have lost their jobs and face economic insecurity
- Those who are essential and face health insecurity
- Those who are able to continue working from the safety of their homes. Black workers are least likely to be in that last group, with more economic and health security.
Black workers are disproportionately represented in employment in grocery, convenience, and drug stores; public transit; trucking, warehouse, and postal service; health care; and child care and social services. While, in the near term, this protects them from job loss, it exposes them to greater likelihood of contracting COVID-19 while performing their jobs. Fewer than one in five Black workers in the pre-pandemic economy were able to work from home. Read the report »
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Black workers face two of the most lethal preexisting conditions for coronavirus—racism and economic inequality
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Decades of so-called “tough on crime” laws have overcrowded Midwestern jails and prisons and put the people who are incarcerated and the surrounding communities at greater risk for contracting COVID-19. State and local policymakers must do more to protect the health and safety of people impacted by incarceration and the workers coming in and out of these facilities as well. The first installment of this three-part series on the impact of the coronavirus in the Midwest describes how weak labor protections have put Midwestern food processing workers at risk for coronavirus. Read the blog post »
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The agonizing similarity in the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, is that current and former police officers participated in their lynchings. From 1877 to 1950, nearly 4,000 individuals were the victims of lynchings. Some have speculated that as many as 75% of historical lynchings “were perpetrated with the direct or indirect assistance of law enforcement personnel.” Despite drawing attention from large crowds, many perpetrators of historical lynchings were never charged with a crime—a fact seen in many modern-day officer-involved shootings. There are steps being taken to stop these heinous crimes, including an anti-lynching bill. To learn from our past, we must break the cycle of state-sanctioned violence. Read the blog post »
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The State of Working America Podcast featured EPI economist Valerie Wilson late last year discussing the central role of race in the American economy. Wilson’s comments resonate right now given recent events. She debunks the widely held myth that education is an easy way to narrow the racial wage and wealth gap, explaining that structural racism runs much deeper, defining U.S. economic relations to their core. Watch a video of the podcast »
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COVID-19 is acting as a magnifying glass to the deep-seated systemic inequities ever-present in the United States. EPI hosted a webinar on June 1 with the Insight Center; the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity, and Race; the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights; and Economic Education. The webinar included findings from EPI’s new report on Black workers, followed by a discussion on strategies to build an inclusive economy that centers on the needs of Black and Brown women and their communities. Watch the video »
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EPI hosted authors William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen on May 27 for a discussion of From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century. Through their assessment of the intergenerational effects of white supremacy on Black economic well-being, Darity and Mullen confront the injustices of slavery, Jim Crow, and modern-day discrimination to make the most comprehensive case to date for economic reparations for U.S. descendants of slavery. EPI economist Valerie Wilson moderated the discussion. Watch the video »
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Vox dove into EPI’s new report on black workers by Director of the Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy Valerie Wilson and Senior Economist Elise Gould, which explores how racial and economic inequality have left many Black workers with few good options for protecting both their health and economic well-being during the coronavirus pandemic. | George Floyd and the Cascade of Crises in Black America
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Let’s cut to the chase. It’s been a tough few days...weeks...months. Read more »
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America’s racist economy
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