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Gig workers fear financial help may come too late 02:26
(CNN)In what I call the "color of Covid," the pandemic has highlighted a range of
underlying inequalities on race -- including on the job front -- now exacerbated by the
health crisis and the emerging stay-at-home economy. Just as Spencer
Overton, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, has rightly
demanded that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "end its silence on
the racial impact of Covid-19" in terms of health and morbidity, so too must we all
reconcile -- and address -- the fact that the black and Latinx communities and workers
are bearing the brunt of the pandemic.
Catherine Powell
While millions of white-collar employees now work remotely from home, jobless claims
have once again soared -- to a total of 16 million jobs in the last three weeks (6.6 million
Americans filing for unemployment in the last week alone) -- with people of color
particularly hard hit. According to the latest available numbers provided by the US
Bureau of Labor Statistics, the March unemployment rate was highest for blacks at 6.7%.
The rate was 6% for Latinxs and the lowest for white Americans at 4%.
The hemorrhaging of jobs is particularly devastating, as this record number of jobless
claims eclipses even the number from the most recent recession over two full years.
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Meanwhile, "essential" workers largely can't work from home. They include not only
doctors and other frontline health workers, but also blue collar workers, such as grocery
cashiers, delivery workers, bus drivers, mail carriers and warehouse workers.
What Covid-19 is showing us about the South
An underexplored dynamic is what New York radio host Brian Lehrer aptly
described, during a recent interview with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as
a "racial justice paradox:" while "black and brown people are more likely to lose their jobs
in the crisis (and suffer food and housing insecurity)," he said "they're also more likely to
be the ones asked to keep their jobs and have risky contact with other people."
Ocasio-Cortez noted that these frontline workers -- disproportionately black and Latinx --
are not being treated with the dignity and respect of proper pay and protections,
particularly for the risk they assume, demonstrating how "racial and class inequities
baked into this crisis." While 37% of Asian workers and 29.9% of white workers are able
to work remotely, only 19.7% of black workers, and 16.2% of Latinx workers, are able
to telework, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In short, they must leave their
homes and show up for work during a pandemic.
The duality -- people of color being overrepresented among both the unemployed and
among essential workers -- is two sides of the same coin.
On a broader level, the racial effects of this crisis teach us many lessons about the
importance of having a social safety net -- including generous paid family and sick leave
for all -- as well as affordable health care for all. Fortunately, civil rights groups and the
Congressional Black Caucus are discussing policies and solutions that would assist
communities of color, as Covid-19 is forcing us to grapple with persistent problems of
racial injustice across the board.
This pandemic has forever colored our understanding of not only the crisis of contagion,
but also of the ethics of community, care, and concern. We must not leave anyone
behind on this journey.