The Black unemployment rate
As credit goes, we may need to congratulate Trump for centering the issue of Black unemployment during his tenure. Of course, this propagandistic attention is hollow but Trump has made Black unemployment a headline enough times to inspire clear-eyed and constant discussion.
Is the president responsible for pre-COVID gains in Black unemployment? It depends on who you are asking as many of his detractors say the bigger credit is Obama’s, whose last year saw month-on-month growth in the job market.
Indeed, the unemployment rate has been in a downward spiral since 2015, by some counts. But that is not even the biggest drawback for Trump’s Black jobs pitch.
In March, I noted in another piece for Face2Face Africa that Trump’s obsession with what number of African Americans are working obscures the grimmer fact of the same demographic having comparatively higher unemployment rates, fewer job opportunities, lower pay, poorer benefits, and greater job instability.
While he is all about the conspicuousness of the numbers and what they do for him, Trump does not show any care that Black people still have the worst bargain by far.
