1 00:00:01,933 --> 00:00:05,066 AMNA NAWAZ: Now we continue our Race Matters coverage about inequality, racial justice 2 00:00:05,066 --> 00:00:10,066 and specific challenges for black Americans, the first, a story on major economic gaps 3 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:15,400 in wealth and income, the second on Hollywood's need for better representation on and off 4 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:18,133 the screen. 5 00:00:18,133 --> 00:00:21,266 Economics correspondent Paul Solman starts with a report on the historic disparities 6 00:00:21,266 --> 00:00:26,266 African-Americans face, and how that history is making the current problems of COVID even 7 00:00:26,733 --> 00:00:28,300 worse. 8 00:00:28,300 --> 00:00:30,933 It's part of his regular reporting for our series Making Sense. 9 00:00:30,933 --> 00:00:35,400 LYDIA CHATMON, Selma Center for Nonviolence: When the rest of the country catches a cold, 10 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:37,366 a place like the Black Belt catches the flu. 11 00:00:37,366 --> 00:00:39,933 PAUL SOLMAN: Or, these days, something worse. 12 00:00:39,933 --> 00:00:42,033 WOMAN: COVID hit us hard. 13 00:00:42,033 --> 00:00:46,233 PAUL SOLMAN: The pandemic has delivered a knockout blow to black Americans physically. 14 00:00:46,233 --> 00:00:48,366 They're dying at twice or more the rate of whites. 15 00:00:48,366 --> 00:00:50,000 MAN: Good afternoon. 16 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:52,433 PAUL SOLMAN: But they are also hit much harder economically. Why? 17 00:00:52,433 --> 00:00:56,500 LISA COOK, Michigan State University: African-Americans are concentrated in the areas of the economy 18 00:00:57,633 --> 00:00:59,666 that have been hardest hit by COVID-19. 19 00:00:59,666 --> 00:01:01,766 PAUL SOLMAN: Economics Professor Lisa Cook. 20 00:01:01,766 --> 00:01:06,466 LISA COOK: Let's just look at unemployment statistics. There's 14 percent unemployment 21 00:01:06,466 --> 00:01:10,366 rate among black women, 16.3 percent among black men. 22 00:01:10,366 --> 00:01:15,366 PAUL SOLMAN: Compared to 10.1 percent for whites. Now, it so happens a black-white unemployment 23 00:01:17,300 --> 00:01:21,500 gap, widening when times are bad, is, sadly, par for the course, in the Great Depression, 24 00:01:23,433 --> 00:01:26,566 in the Great Recession, as economist William Rogers told me in 2009. 25 00:01:26,566 --> 00:01:30,133 WILLIAM ROGERS, Rutgers University: When we entered the recession, African-Americans started 26 00:01:30,133 --> 00:01:35,133 with a higher unemployment rate. And, as we have gone through these last 16 months, the 27 00:01:36,133 --> 00:01:38,133 gap has widened. 28 00:01:38,133 --> 00:01:42,133 PAUL SOLMAN: Pre-pandemic, black unemployment had hit a record low of 5.8 percent, a fact 29 00:01:43,866 --> 00:01:45,966 President Trump often touted. 30 00:01:45,966 --> 00:01:47,933 DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: We have the best numbers we have ever had. 31 00:01:47,933 --> 00:01:52,666 PAUL SOLMAN: But Cook says black workers, stuck in low-wage service jobs, embody the 32 00:01:52,666 --> 00:01:55,433 old adage last hired, first fired. 33 00:01:55,433 --> 00:02:00,433 LISA COOK: The last hired means that there is not the ability to accumulate income. That 34 00:02:01,866 --> 00:02:04,666 makes African-Americans less able to weather such a storm. 35 00:02:04,666 --> 00:02:09,666 PAUL SOLMAN: In Alabama's so-called Black Belt, the jobless rate is at 20 percent. 36 00:02:11,100 --> 00:02:13,100 Lydia Chatmon of the Selma Center for Nonviolence. 37 00:02:13,100 --> 00:02:16,166 LYDIA CHATMON: So, where other people are able to still survive, work from home, we 38 00:02:16,166 --> 00:02:21,166 don't have a whole lot of businesses and industries that allow for that. So, the financial impact 39 00:02:22,333 --> 00:02:24,800 has been great. 40 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:27,400 DAVID LEONHARDT, The New York Times: The black-white wage gap among men is as large as it was in 41 00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:28,900 1950. 42 00:02:28,900 --> 00:02:30,933 PAUL SOLMAN: That's New York Times writer David Leonhardt. 43 00:02:30,933 --> 00:02:35,066 DAVID LEONHARDT: We see that black men make only 51 cents on the dollar, relative to white 44 00:02:35,066 --> 00:02:36,533 men. 45 00:02:36,533 --> 00:02:38,700 PAUL SOLMAN: Therefore, says economist Trevon Logan: 46 00:02:38,700 --> 00:02:41,366 TREVON LOGAN, The Ohio State University: Much less of a cushion to cushion the blow. Much 47 00:02:41,366 --> 00:02:46,366 more likely, then, of course, to need to be employed in the places where they are essential 48 00:02:48,466 --> 00:02:50,533 workers. 49 00:02:50,533 --> 00:02:54,066 LISA COOK: So, yes, there would be desperation with respect to trying to find another job. 50 00:02:54,066 --> 00:02:57,800 DERRICK PALMER, Amazon Worker: You guys need to provide us with masks. You need to provide 51 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:00,266 us with gloves. 52 00:03:00,266 --> 00:03:03,733 PAUL SOLMAN: Starting in March, Amazon warehouse workers, disproportionately people of color, 53 00:03:03,733 --> 00:03:07,733 staged protests around the country over what they said were unsafe working conditions. 54 00:03:07,733 --> 00:03:08,733 GERALD BRYSON, Amazon Worker: They was talking about, we're going by CDC standards. But when 55 00:03:08,733 --> 00:03:12,200 we call the CDC, they are not. 56 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:17,200 PAUL SOLMAN: Amazon fired several of the activists, though the company has since rolled out safety 57 00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:23,533 measures. But good protection still isn't available to many of America's essential workers. 58 00:03:25,466 --> 00:03:28,833 JASON HARGROVE, Bus Driver: This coronavirus (EXPLETIVE DELETED) is for real. And we out 59 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:35,800 here as public workers doing our job trying to make an honest living to take care of our 60 00:03:37,166 --> 00:03:39,200 families. 61 00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:43,166 PAUL SOLMAN: Detroit bus driver Jason Hargrove on March 21, in a Facebook video complaining 62 00:03:43,900 --> 00:03:45,933 about a passenger. 63 00:03:45,933 --> 00:03:49,733 JASON HARGROVE: That woman that was on this bus that stood up behind the line, where they 64 00:03:51,733 --> 00:03:55,766 are not supposed to be, and coughed four or five times, and didn't cover up her mouth. 65 00:03:57,733 --> 00:04:01,600 PAUL SOLMAN: Eleven days later, Hargrove, a 50-year-old father of six, died of COVID-19. 66 00:04:04,566 --> 00:04:09,366 African-Americans like Hargrove make up only 13 percent or so of the U.S. population, but 67 00:04:09,366 --> 00:04:14,100 nearly double that percentage of transportation, warehouse and delivery workers. 68 00:04:14,100 --> 00:04:19,100 Just imagine what happens to a family's finances when that worker is incapacitated, or worse. 69 00:04:21,633 --> 00:04:25,133 And the problem is, African-American finances have been deteriorating for years, says economist 70 00:04:26,700 --> 00:04:28,800 Logan. 71 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:32,633 TREVON LOGAN: Wealth actually has receded for African-Americans since the last Great 72 00:04:32,633 --> 00:04:37,633 Recession. And, in fact, the wealth disparities are larger than they were 20 years ago. 73 00:04:39,666 --> 00:04:43,733 DAVID LEONHARDT: The typical white family has a net worth 41 times the typical black 74 00:04:44,666 --> 00:04:46,733 family, which is just remarkable. 75 00:04:46,733 --> 00:04:51,100 PAUL SOLMAN: And, adds David Leonhardt, to a large extent, the wealth gap is a function 76 00:04:52,266 --> 00:04:54,300 of policy. 77 00:04:54,300 --> 00:04:57,500 DAVID LEONHARDT: The U.S. government in the decades after World War II subsidized families 78 00:04:57,500 --> 00:05:01,466 to buy houses, which is a key way that people build wealth. 79 00:05:01,466 --> 00:05:06,033 But the way the policy was written, they essentially said, to get these low-interest loans, you 80 00:05:06,033 --> 00:05:11,033 have to live in a predominantly white neighborhood. The government justified this by saying that 81 00:05:12,566 --> 00:05:14,566 white neighborhoods were essentially better housing investments. 82 00:05:14,566 --> 00:05:19,166 TREVON LOGAN: And then I looked at the map of Columbus, my home, right in that giant 83 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:22,033 red box. 84 00:05:22,033 --> 00:05:26,000 PAUL SOLMAN: Black neighborhoods were literally redlined on maps for decades, off-limits to 85 00:05:27,166 --> 00:05:29,200 the housing investment which builds wealth. 86 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:33,866 TREVON LOGAN: I can show you every city in the United States. It's the same in Indianapolis. 87 00:05:35,833 --> 00:05:39,566 It's the same in Cleveland. It's the same in Detroit. It's the same in Philadelphia. 88 00:05:41,533 --> 00:05:45,533 PAUL SOLMAN: And during the crash of 2008, those neighborhoods became hotbeds of sleazy 89 00:05:48,066 --> 00:05:50,866 subprime loans and often, as a result, foreclosure, less wealth, and thus less access to capital 90 00:05:54,133 --> 00:05:56,533 for buying a home, for building a business. 91 00:05:56,533 --> 00:06:00,266 ALPHONZO CROSS, Owner, Parlor: Having operating capital is everything. We are not afforded 92 00:06:00,266 --> 00:06:03,866 the same kinds of opportunities, because we're looked at as a risk. And we're looked at as 93 00:06:03,866 --> 00:06:07,900 a risk because we don't have access to the capital in order for there not to be a risk. 94 00:06:07,900 --> 00:06:12,900 PAUL SOLMAN: Alphonzo Cross owns Parlor, a craft cocktail lounge in Atlanta. It's in 95 00:06:14,333 --> 00:06:16,866 a building his family owns in a less fashionable part of town. 96 00:06:16,866 --> 00:06:21,866 ALPHONZO CROSS: As a black business owner, there are still places that you cannot get 97 00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:25,633 a lease, no matter what. 98 00:06:25,633 --> 00:06:29,400 PAUL SOLMAN: But they don't say to you, we're not leasing to you because you're black?' 99 00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:33,500 ALPHONZO CROSS: Well, this isn't 1952. Of course they're not saying that. 100 00:06:33,500 --> 00:06:35,566 (LAUGHTER) 101 00:06:35,566 --> 00:06:38,900 PAUL SOLMAN: But being locked out of high-traffic areas means less revenue, even during the 102 00:06:38,900 --> 00:06:40,866 good times. 103 00:06:40,866 --> 00:06:44,900 ALPHONZO CROSS: Throw a pandemic into the mix, and you now need access to more capital 104 00:06:46,033 --> 00:06:48,133 to get through this dumpster fire of a year. 105 00:06:48,133 --> 00:06:51,166 MARC MORIAL, President, National Urban League: African-American businesses come to the pandemic 106 00:06:51,166 --> 00:06:53,233 smaller. 107 00:06:53,233 --> 00:06:57,133 PAUL SOLMAN: Marc Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League. 108 00:06:57,133 --> 00:07:02,133 MARC MORIAL: Less of a reserve in cash and money, and, therefore, harder to weather the 109 00:07:06,266 --> 00:07:08,466 storm. 110 00:07:08,466 --> 00:07:12,200 PAUL SOLMAN: What's so infuriating to African-Americans is that this is a legacy of an intentional 111 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:16,633 past, slavery and Jim Crow, most notably segregation. 112 00:07:16,633 --> 00:07:21,633 DAVID WILLIAMS, Harvard University: Segregation is the secret sauce that creates racial inequality 113 00:07:23,766 --> 00:07:25,700 in the United States. 114 00:07:25,700 --> 00:07:29,066 PAUL SOLMAN: Harvard sociologist David Williams in a 2017 TED Talk. 115 00:07:29,066 --> 00:07:34,066 DAVID WILLIAMS: If you could eliminate statistically residential segregation, you would completely 116 00:07:35,866 --> 00:07:39,766 erase black-white differences in income, education and unemployment. 117 00:07:41,766 --> 00:07:44,866 PAUL SOLMAN: And, Williams might have added, perhaps the differences leading to a very 118 00:07:44,866 --> 00:07:49,866 different COVID-19 death rate. It's the reasons behind that death rate that we will explore 119 00:07:50,733 --> 00:07:51,500 in our next Making Sense report.