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AMNA NAWAZ: Now we continue
our Race Matters coverage about
inequality, racial justice

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and specific challenges for
black Americans, the first, a
story on major economic gaps

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in wealth and income, the
second on Hollywood's need for
better representation on and off

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the screen.

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Economics correspondent Paul
Solman starts with a report
on the historic disparities

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African-Americans face, and
how that history is making the
current problems of COVID even

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worse.

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It's part of his regular
reporting for our
series Making Sense.

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LYDIA CHATMON, Selma Center
for Nonviolence: When the rest
of the country catches a cold,

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a place like the Black
Belt catches the flu.

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PAUL SOLMAN: Or, these
days, something worse.

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WOMAN: COVID hit us hard.

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PAUL SOLMAN: The pandemic has
delivered a knockout blow to
black Americans physically.

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They're dying at twice or
more the rate of whites.

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MAN: Good afternoon.

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PAUL SOLMAN: But they
are also hit much harder
economically. Why?

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LISA COOK, Michigan State
University: African-Americans
are concentrated in the
areas of the economy

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that have been hardest
hit by COVID-19.

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PAUL SOLMAN: Economics
Professor Lisa Cook.

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LISA COOK: Let's just look
at unemployment statistics.
There's 14 percent unemployment

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rate among black women, 16.3
percent among black men.

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PAUL SOLMAN: Compared to
10.1 percent for whites.
Now, it so happens a
black-white unemployment

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gap, widening when times are
bad, is, sadly, par for the
course, in the Great Depression,

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in the Great Recession,
as economist William
Rogers told me in 2009.

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WILLIAM ROGERS, Rutgers
University: When we
entered the recession,
African-Americans started

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with a higher unemployment rate.
And, as we have gone through
these last 16 months, the

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gap has widened.

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PAUL SOLMAN: Pre-pandemic, black
unemployment had hit a record
low of 5.8 percent, a fact

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President Trump often touted.

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DONALD TRUMP, President of
the United States: We have the
best numbers we have ever had.

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PAUL SOLMAN: But Cook says
black workers, stuck in low-wage
service jobs, embody the

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old adage last
hired, first fired.

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LISA COOK: The last hired means
that there is not the ability
to accumulate income. That

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makes African-Americans less
able to weather such a storm.

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PAUL SOLMAN: In Alabama's
so-called Black Belt, the
jobless rate is at 20 percent.

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Lydia Chatmon of the Selma
Center for Nonviolence.

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LYDIA CHATMON: So, where
other people are able to still
survive, work from home, we

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don't have a whole lot of
businesses and industries
that allow for that.
So, the financial impact

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has been great.

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DAVID LEONHARDT, The New
York Times: The black-white
wage gap among men is
as large as it was in

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1950.

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PAUL SOLMAN: That's New York
Times writer David Leonhardt.

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DAVID LEONHARDT: We see that
black men make only 51 cents on
the dollar, relative to white

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men.

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PAUL SOLMAN: Therefore,
says economist Trevon Logan:

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TREVON LOGAN, The Ohio
State University: Much
less of a cushion to
cushion the blow. Much

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more likely, then, of course,
to need to be employed in the
places where they are essential

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workers.

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LISA COOK: So, yes, there would
be desperation with respect
to trying to find another job.

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DERRICK PALMER, Amazon Worker:
You guys need to provide us
with masks. You need to provide

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us with gloves.

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PAUL SOLMAN: Starting in
March, Amazon warehouse
workers, disproportionately
people of color,

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staged protests around the
country over what they said
were unsafe working conditions.

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GERALD BRYSON, Amazon Worker:
They was talking about, we're
going by CDC standards. But when

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we call the CDC, they are not.

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PAUL SOLMAN: Amazon fired
several of the activists,
though the company has
since rolled out safety

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measures. But good protection
still isn't available to many
of America's essential workers.

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JASON HARGROVE, Bus Driver:
This coronavirus (EXPLETIVE
DELETED) is for real. And we out

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here as public workers doing
our job trying to make an honest
living to take care of our

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families.

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PAUL SOLMAN: Detroit bus driver
Jason Hargrove on March 21, in
a Facebook video complaining

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about a passenger.

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JASON HARGROVE: That woman that
was on this bus that stood up
behind the line, where they

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are not supposed to be, and
coughed four or five times,
and didn't cover up her mouth.

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PAUL SOLMAN: Eleven days later,
Hargrove, a 50-year-old father
of six, died of COVID-19.

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African-Americans like Hargrove
make up only 13 percent or so
of the U.S. population, but

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nearly double that percentage
of transportation, warehouse
and delivery workers.

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Just imagine what happens
to a family's finances
when that worker is
incapacitated, or worse.

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And the problem is,
African-American finances
have been deteriorating
for years, says economist

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Logan.

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TREVON LOGAN: Wealth
actually has receded
for African-Americans
since the last Great

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Recession. And, in fact, the
wealth disparities are larger
than they were 20 years ago.

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DAVID LEONHARDT: The typical
white family has a net worth
41 times the typical black

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family, which is
just remarkable.

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PAUL SOLMAN: And, adds David
Leonhardt, to a large extent,
the wealth gap is a function

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of policy.

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DAVID LEONHARDT: The U.S.
government in the decades after
World War II subsidized families

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to buy houses, which is a key
way that people build wealth.

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But the way the policy was
written, they essentially
said, to get these
low-interest loans, you

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have to live in a predominantly
white neighborhood. The
government justified
this by saying that

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white neighborhoods
were essentially better
housing investments.

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TREVON LOGAN: And then I
looked at the map of Columbus,
my home, right in that giant

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red box.

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PAUL SOLMAN: Black neighborhoods
were literally redlined on
maps for decades, off-limits to

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the housing investment
which builds wealth.

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TREVON LOGAN: I can show you
every city in the United States.
It's the same in Indianapolis.

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It's the same in Cleveland.
It's the same in Detroit.
It's the same in Philadelphia.

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PAUL SOLMAN: And during
the crash of 2008,
those neighborhoods
became hotbeds of sleazy

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subprime loans and often,
as a result, foreclosure,
less wealth, and thus
less access to capital

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for buying a home, for
building a business.

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ALPHONZO CROSS, Owner, Parlor:
Having operating capital is
everything. We are not afforded

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the same kinds of opportunities,
because we're looked at as a
risk. And we're looked at as

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a risk because we don't have
access to the capital in order
for there not to be a risk.

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PAUL SOLMAN: Alphonzo Cross
owns Parlor, a craft cocktail
lounge in Atlanta. It's in

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a building his family owns in a
less fashionable part of town.

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ALPHONZO CROSS: As a black
business owner, there are still
places that you cannot get

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a lease, no matter what.

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PAUL SOLMAN: But they don't
say to you, we're not leasing
to you because you're black?'

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ALPHONZO CROSS: Well,
this isn't 1952. Of course
they're not saying that.

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(LAUGHTER)

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PAUL SOLMAN: But being locked
out of high-traffic areas means
less revenue, even during the

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good times.

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ALPHONZO CROSS: Throw a pandemic
into the mix, and you now
need access to more capital

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to get through this
dumpster fire of a year.

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MARC MORIAL, President, National
Urban League: African-American
businesses come to the pandemic

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smaller.

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PAUL SOLMAN: Marc Morial
is president and CEO of
the National Urban League.

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MARC MORIAL: Less of a reserve
in cash and money, and,
therefore, harder to weather the

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storm.

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PAUL SOLMAN: What's so
infuriating to African-Americans
is that this is a
legacy of an intentional

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past, slavery and Jim Crow,
most notably segregation.

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DAVID WILLIAMS, Harvard
University: Segregation
is the secret sauce that
creates racial inequality

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in the United States.

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PAUL SOLMAN: Harvard
sociologist David Williams
in a 2017 TED Talk.

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DAVID WILLIAMS: If you could
eliminate statistically
residential segregation,
you would completely

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erase black-white
differences in income,
education and unemployment.

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PAUL SOLMAN: And, Williams
might have added, perhaps the
differences leading to a very

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different COVID-19 death rate.
It's the reasons behind that
death rate that we will explore

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in our next Making Sense report.