Race/racism
Ignoring Black Women Costs the U.S. Billions, the ‘Traffic to Deportation Pipeline,’ and Prince + Patti LaBelle
Catch up with this week’s racial news roundup.
This week’s collection of race and racism news opens with some startling information about the ways the economy loses out when Black women can’t fulfill their potential. We also highlight some efforts to recognize the untold stories of Black working-class New Yorkers in the 1800s, and the names of enslaved Black ancestors whose names were never properly recorded. We close with something light — a story that brings together two music icons: Patti LaBelle, and Prince.
The high cost of counting Black women out
A new report by financial services company S&P Global has found that obstacles to Black women’s educational attainment cost the U.S $107 billion dollars in economic activity between 1960 and 2019. But that’s not the most stunning figure: “Moreover, if Black women had also been in positions that better matched their education and skill sets, the productivity boost would have added an overall $507 billion to the world’s biggest economy”, the U.S. That’s right, $507,000,000,000. More than half a TRILLION dollars. If you had a nickel for every time a Black woman faced structural racism or…
