Economy

Black unemployment rose sharply in January, as Trump bragged about record lows

Madeline Patrick
Feb 03, 2018     
Black unemployment rose sharply in January, as Trump bragged about record lows

In December, the unemployment rate for African Americans fell to an historic low of 6.8%.

The demeanor of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) during Trump's State of the Union address made headlines on Tuesday - with many sharing images, GIFs and video clips on social media of the top Democrat looking unimpressed by Trump's words. It was reduced by one point under Trump.

Critics of the president have pointed to the fact that the sharp decline in African-American unemployment began under former President Barack Obama, suggesting Trump may be taking credit for the past administration's work.

But if that were true, the black labor force participation rate - which measures the percentage of people who either have a job or are looking for one - would have risen.

It took 400 years of slavery, segregation, and institutionalized discrimination in the labor and housing markets to build the wealth gap that we see today.The racial wealth gap continues to grow not only because of income inequality-whites have more dollars to sock away-but because accumulated wealth is a mechanism for transmitting economic success from generation to generation.

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He continued, "Presidents take credit for good economies". Still, the black unemployment rate is much higher than that of whites, Hispanics and Asians.

While some praised Trump for staying on message and striking a more presidential tone, others pointed out that his tone contradicted his actions. You treat people like human beings.

The president clearly intended his speech to be an olive branch to Democrats, pleading for a "new American moment" and vowing to "extend an open hand" to political opponents.

However, after a divisive 12 months his entreaties to the right of the House seemed to fall on deaf ears. He even tweeted about it in response to criticism from Jay-Z over the weekend. Black writers and some lawmakers routinely refer to the president as a racist, and some writers have argued that the president's victory a year ago was the result of a white nationalist sentiment. His clashes with basketball players like LeBron James and Steph Curry, and ESPN personalities like Jemele Hill (who called the president a white supremacist), have helped extend the conversation around race and Trump into the most mainstream of cultural conversations. "This is a president who wants life to be better for all Americans and he's going to keep fighting and pushing for that", she added.

This does not mean, however, that there is necessarily a sudden crisis in the black community.