The racial justice movement hasn’t translated to economic justice for black workers yet

Edwin Smith had just started a new job at a software company when, at an office happy hour, his boss told a joke in which the punchline was a play on words using the n-word.

“He tried to laugh it off and was like, ‘Don’t you go calling me racist now,’” recalled Smith, 41, one of the few Blacks in the company’s Houston-area location. “That was when I began to think something didn’t feel right there.”

Smith moved on, earning promotion from inside sales representative to account executive. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, however, Smith and the only other account executive of color were among the first in the office to get laid off. About a month later, two more employees were laid off.

“This was no longer a coincidence,” Smith said. “They were all Black.”

The coronavirus pandemic is again exposing the inequalities Black workers face, who are experiencing unemployment at a far higher rate than whites. The unemployment gap […]

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