The Black community has faced generations of racial exclusion, discrimination, and inequality in the United States, causing Black families to shoulder unequal economic and health burdens.
 
In a new EPI piece, titled Calling out anti-Blackness in our response to police violence and economic inequality, we discuss, as a society, how we must address anti-Blackness and center Black women and Black communities in our policies.
 
The central points are drawn from a recent EPI panel discussion, moderated by EPI Director of EARN Naomi Walker and featuring Black and Brown women who are leading economic and social justice experts.
 
Check out some highlights from our panel discussion below.

Valerie Wilson, Director of EPI's Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy answers the question: “What role does policy play in perpetuating anti-Blackness?”
 
“People keep saying, ‘Go through the system, follow the system, file this complaint. Do this, do that,’ and nothing happens. That’s because we have things on the books, but the way that they actually play out and actually work in real life, there’s very little teeth behind that, at all. We really need to change the way that we structure policy and the way that we enforce those laws and policies.”
                          — Valerie Wilson, Economic Policy Institute (Video)

EPI Director of EARN Naomi Walker answers the question: “Why should we address anti-Blackness in our society, in our research, and in our advocacy?”
 
“Black people in this country face physical and economic violence every day, and all of this is taking place in the midst of a stunning—though not surprising—lack of leadership from the highest office in the land.”
                          — Naomi Walker, Economic Policy Institute (Video)

Anne Price of the Insight Center answers: “What does ‘anti-Blackness’ mean, in terms of the current health, economic, and political crises?”
 
“What we’re really talking about is the devaluation and disposability of Black lives. That’s what brings these all together—the convergence of police brutality, of policing Black bodies, and the negligence that we’ve seen in terms of COVID and Black people.”
                           — Anne Price, Insight Center (Video)