Black workers’ views and experiences in the U.S. labor force stand out in key ways

BY KATHERINE SCHAEFFER

 AUGUST 31, 2023

A U.S. Postal Service employee scans a package. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

There are more than 21 million Black Americans in the U.S. labor force today. Their workforce experiences are varied but stand out from people of other races and ethnicities on several important measures: They are more likely to be employed in certain postal work, transit, health care and security fields; report experiencing more racial discrimination on the job; and place a higher value on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the workplace.

For Labor Day, here are facts about Black workers’ labor force experiences and attitudes, drawn from federal data sources and recent Pew Research Center surveys.

How we did this

Black Americans make up large shares of workers in certain transit, health and security occupations, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data from 2022, the most recent year available. Black workers account for about 13% of all U.S. workers, including those who work full time, part time and are self-employed. They make up especially large shares of employees in certain occupations, including postal service clerks (40.4%), transit and intercity bus drivers (36.6%), nursing assistants (36.0%), security guards and gambling surveillance officers (34.5%), and home health aides (32.5%).

Black workers make up much smaller shares of farmers, ranchers and other agricultural managers (1.5%). They also tend to be underrepresented in some science, engineering and technology occupations such as veterinarians (2.2%), mechanical engineers (3.6%) and electrical and electronics engineers (6.0%).

A 2021 Center survey found that Black adults see barriers for Black workers in STEM fields, including an unwelcoming professional environment and the need for more mentorship and representation for young people in science, technology, engineering and math.

Black workers generally earn less than U.S. workers overall, according to BLS data from 2022. Among full-time wage and salary workers, the median weekly earnings for Black workers ages 16 and older are $878, compared with $1,059 for all U.S. workers in the same age group. Among workers of other races and ethnicities in the same age group, the median weekly earnings are $823 for Hispanic workers, $1,085 for White workers and $1,401 for Asian workers. And the differences hold when accounting for education level – Black workers earn less than those in other groups even among workers with bachelor’s or advanced degrees.

Household income for Black Americans has lagged behind that for Americans of other races for several decades, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

The unemployment rate for Black Americans is the highest of any racial or ethnic group and roughly double the rate for the U.S. overall, BLS data shows. In 2022, the unemployment rate for Americans ages 16 and older was 3.7% for men and 3.6% for women, according to BLS annual averages. Among Black Americans, the unemployment rate was 6.3% for men and 6.0% for women. This compared with around 3% each for White and Asian men and women and about 4% each for Hispanic men and women.

Monthly unemployment figures showed a record-low unemployment rate for Black Americans in April of this year, but it has begun to tick back up.

As with gaps in household income, Black Americans have experienced higher unemployment rates than their White counterparts for decades. Researchers have identified a variety of factors causing this trend, including racial discrimination and gaps in education, skills and work experience.

Black workers are the most likely to say they’ve experienced discrimination at work because of their race or ethnicity, according to a February 2023 Center survey of U.S. workers. About four-in-ten Black workers (41%) say they have experienced discrimination or been treated unfairly by an employer in hiring, pay or promotions because of their race or ethnicity. Much smaller shares of Asian (25%), Hispanic (20%) and White (8%) workers say the same.

Among Black workers, 48% of men and 36% of women say they’ve experienced discrimination or unfair treatment by an employer due to their race. There are no gender differences among White and Hispanic workers, and the sample size for Asian workers is too small to analyze men and women separately.

A quarter of U.S. workers say being Black makes it harder to succeed where they work, the February survey shows. Just 8% of U.S. workers say being Black makes it a little or a lot easier to be successful where they work, 50% say it makes it neither easier nor harder, and 17% aren’t sure.

Among Black workers, 51% say that being Black makes it harder to succeed where they work. By comparison, 41% of Asian, 23% of Hispanic and 18% of White workers view being Black as a disadvantage in their workplace. And about four-in-ten or fewer among Asian (39%), Hispanic (29%) and White (7%) workers say that being their own race or ethnicity makes it harder to be successful where they work.

Majorities of Black Americans see racial and ethnic bias as a major problem in hiring and performance evaluations generally, according to a separate Center survey of all U.S. adults conducted in December 2022. Some 64% of Black adults say that, in hiring generally, bias and unfair treatment based on job applicants’ race or ethnicity is a major problem. This compares with 49% of Asian, 41% of Hispanic and 30% of White adults who view racial and ethnic bias in hiring as a major problem.

When it comes to performance evaluations, 56% of Black adults say that, in general, racial and ethnic bias is a major problem. About four-in-ten Asian or Hispanic adults and 23% of White adults say the same.

Black workers especially value diversity in their workplace, the February survey of workers found. Regardless of how diverse their workplace is, 53% of Black workers say it is extremely or very important to them to work somewhere with a mix of employees of different races and ethnicities. That percentage is larger than the shares of Hispanic, White and Asian workers who say this. And 42% of Black workers say they highly value a workplace with employees of different ages, compared with smaller shares of workers who are Hispanic (33%), Asian (30%) or White (24%).

There is a similar trend in views of workplace accessibility: 62% of Black workers say it is extremely or very important to them to work at a place that is accessible for people with physical disabilities, compared with 51% of Hispanic, 48% of White and 43% of Asian workers.

The vast majority of Black workers say that increasing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at work is a good thing, but a sizable share give their employer low marks in this area, according to the February workers survey.

Around eight-in-ten Black workers (78%) say that focusing on increasing DEI at work is a good thing. Just 1% of Black workers say this is a bad thing, and 20% view it as neither good nor bad. While majorities of Asian (72%) and Hispanic (65%) workers also say that focusing on increasing DEI is a good thing, roughly half (47%) of White workers hold this view. In fact, 21% of White workers say it’s a bad thing.

But when it comes to their own employer’s DEI efforts, 28% of Black workers say their company or organization pays too little attention to increasing DEI – the largest share of any racial or ethnic group. Black workers are also the least likely to say that their company or organization pays too much attention to DEI. Just 3% hold this view, compared with one-in-ten or more among Hispanic (11%), White (16%) and Asian (18%) workers.

Topics

 Economy & WorkDiscrimination & PrejudiceRacial Bias & DiscriminationBlack AmericansBusiness & Workplace

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Katherine Schaeffer  is a research analyst at Pew Research Center.

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Italy rail maintenance workers to strike after five killed

Reuters

August 31, 2023

Five railway workers killed in Italy train accident

TURIN, Italy, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Italy's transport unions said railway maintenance staff would hold a half-day national strike on Friday after five workers were run over and killed by a train while replacing a stretch of track.

The accident involving an empty passenger train took place at around midnight on Wednesday outside the station of Brandizzo, on the line connecting Milan and Turin.

Transport Minister Matteo Salvini said prosecutors and his ministry were looking into how it happened.

He and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed their condolences, along with other politicians.

Officials work at the site of a train accident in which workers were killed, in Brandizzo, Italy, August 31, 2023. 

REUTERS/Massimo Pinca 

But Maurizio Landini, head of Italy's largest union, the CGIL, said too many Italians were dying at work due to inadequate safety procedures.

"Indignation and condolences are no longer enough ... This massacre has to stop immediately," he said in announcing the strike, adding that further stoppages were planned on Monday in the Piedmont region around Turin.

"Too many tragedies at work are caused by lowering safety standards to speed things up and cut costs," Landini said.

Two workers managed to avoid the train, which officials said was travelling at around 160 kilometres (100 miles) per hour, and were unhurt.

The train driver was treated for shock at the scene and then allowed to go home.

Reporting by Gavin Jones; editing by Robert Birsel and John Stonestreet

World Cup kiss: feminist progress is always met with backlash, but Spain’s #MeToo moment shows things are changing
 

THE CONVERSATION
Published: August 31, 2023 

Winning the women’s World Cup was a significant moment for Spanish football. Spain is now one of only two teams who are world champions in both the male and female competitions (Germany is the other).

This momentous achievement cannot have been lost on Spanish football executives. For that reason, it is particularly incomprehensible that the president of the Spanish football federation kissed the women’s team player Jenni Hermoso on the lips in plain view of the entire world, turning what should have been a celebration into a reckoning.

Luis Rubiales’ defence is that he kissed Hermoso in a moment of euphoria (diminishing his own responsibility) and, more importantly, that it was by mutual consent. This he explained to a large crowd of the football federation’s members in a general meeting, despite Hermoso saying publicly that she did not consent or “enjoy” the kiss.

So far, Rubiales has evaded calls to resign, both from the public and Spanish football federation officials (though he has been suspended by Fifa). But his protestations of innocence have been drowned out by a vociferous feminist movement, as well as the Spanish government, Fifa and other teams worldwide.

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Even some men’s teams are wearing shirts with the message #SeAcabó [it’s over], #contigo Jenni [with you, Jenni] and todos somos Jenni [we’re all Jenni].

Immediately hailed as Spain’s #MeToo moment, it appears to mark a turning point. In a society where feminist progress has historically been met with backlash, it shows how far Spanish society has come to reject rancid machismo instantaneously.

Read more: Luis Rubiales: these seven tactics made his speech excusing his assault on Jenni Hermoso a textbook case in silencing women

Machismo, on and off the pitch

The kiss was not the only moment of such machismo that this team has had to contend with. In the autumn of 2022, 15 players demanded better working conditions, because they feared for their physical and mental health. “Las 15”, as they became known, play football for first division clubs (Barcelona, both Manchester clubs, Atlético de Madrid), so they knew what can be achieved with better resources and conditions.

These legitimate concerns made in private were leaked to the press and spun as a revolt of spoilt, female brats against the head coach Jorge Vilda. Las 15 published a letter clarifying that their concerns referred to better management of the team to achieve peak performance, and a less controlling leadership style that treats players professionally.

Rubiales, unsurprisingly, gave Vilda unconditional support. And from Las 15, only three players were selected for the World Cup (Batlle, Bonmatí, Caldentey), making their win against a formidable English team even more remarkable.

Backlash to progress

These moments are best understood within the context of wider legal, social and cultural changes that have taken place in Spain. While there was slow but steady progress for women’s rights in the 1980s and 1990s, it was not until the administration of José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (2004-2011) that progress accelerated, and the longstanding machismo culture began to face a real challenge.

Two landmark legislative changes were made to combat gender violence in 2004 and progress gender equality in 2007.

The most recent new legislation, passed in October 2022, strengthens criminal charges for sexual aggression, among other advancements for women’s rights. These changes were described as a fundamental feminist achievement by the UN.

This wording, while accurate, plays into the hands of the far right political party Vox, who all too happily spin these advancements as the making of a (too) leftwing government. Vox is vocal in its condemnation of feminism and blames women for destroying the nuclear family as the basis for society.

Most shockingly, they want to protect men from “fake feminism”, such as supposedly fake stories about gender violence. This is the exact phrasing Rubiales used in his defence, showing how this ideology can be accepted and used by powerful men.

Throughout history, feminist movements have had to contend with setbacks and false narratives against them. As American journalist Susan Faludi argued in her 1991 book Backlash, the underlying cause for such a response against feminist movements is male anxiety about the loss of power in the public and private sphere.

In Spain, you can see these backlashes whenever there were radical (or even not so radical) legal changes. Even during the dictatorship in the 1960s, the slightest progress for female rights was perceived as a danger to a male-dominated society.

Equally, during the transition from dictatorship to democracy (1975-1982) women’s demands for rights were at best considered as an afterthought and at worst seen as a serious danger to society.

Read more: Se acabó: de las universidades al fútbol, el consentimiento está en boca de todos

Solidarity

The vocal opposition to Rubiales’ behaviour shows progress is being made culturally as well as politically.

Yolanda Díaz, a deputy prime minister, swiftly and confidently reacted to Rubiales’ kiss in a press conference: “Spanish society is profoundly feminist, it’s in the vanguard of equal rights, and that’s why these abnormal behaviours stick out so much.”

This assertion that Spain is a feminist nation is borne out by the statistics both at European and global level. The EU Gender Equality Index ranks Spain 6th of 27 countries, while the Global Gender Gap report ranks it 18th of 146 countries (the US is ranked 43rd).

Protesters giving Luis Rubiales the red card. Mariscal/EPA-EFE

The vast majority of reactions to Rubiales’ power play was to say “todos somos Jenni/we are all Jenni”, although the most prominent male players were conspicuous by their silence – there is still work to be done.

Female and male feminists from all walks of life took to the streets demonstrating in Spanish cities, showing Rubiales the red card. It’s over for Rubiales, not even football tolerates toxic masculinity anymore.

An editorial in El País is brutally frank in its judgement of this powerful man who has behaved like a textbook perpetrator. No country can control its lunatics, but how it deals with them is a sign of its maturity.

Spanish feminism - one, machismo - nil

Author

Anja Louis
Professor of Transnational Popular Culture, Sheffield Hallam University

 

Forget Apollo and Sputnik: How a Briton launched the space race in the 1640s

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Heroic possibility: John Wilkins drew up plans to send a chariot to the Moon

Forget Sputnik and Apollo 11 - the space race really began almost 400 years ago, according to an academic.

John Wilkins, a British inventor, drew up plans in the 1640s to send a manned wooden 'chariot' to the Moon propelled by gunpowder, feather wings and springs.

Convinced the Moon was inhabited by a race of people called the Selenites, he was determined to visit them to set up trade links.

Records show that Wilkins, who was Oliver Cromwell's brother-in-law, experimented with flying machines in the gardens of Wadham College, Oxford, around 1654.

Allan Chapman, an academic based at the college, claims Wilkins should be acknowledged for establishing the 'Jacobean space programme'.

'His ingenuity was enormous,' he said. 'He saw his flying chariot as being the space version of Drake's, Raleigh's and Magellan's ships.

'This was a honeymoon period of British science. The vacuum had not yet been discovered. In 1640, flying to the Moon was a heroic possibility.'

Wilkins, who was initially a vicar on the Northamptonshire village of Fawsley, before becoming warden of Wadham College, Oxford, outlined his theories in 'A Worlde in the Moone'.

Discussing his belief that the moon was inhabited, Wilkins said: 'I must needs confesse, though I had often thought with my selfe that it was possible there might be a world in the Moone, yet it seemed such an uncouth opinion that I never durst discover it, for feare of being counted singular and ridiculous.

'But afterward having read Plutarch, Galilæus, Keplar, with some others, and finding many of mine owne thoughts confirmed by such strong authority, I then concluded that it was not onely possible there might bee, but probable that there was another habitable world in that Planet.'

John Wilkins proposed using gunpowder and springs to send the 'space chariot' to the moon

He proposed many theories, or 'prepositions', including the moon had no light of its own, instead reflecting sunlight.

Some were later proved wrong, including that the celestial body had seas and an atmosphere.

Wilkins is the only person to have headed a college at both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.

He is also credited with designing the first airgun, a mileage recorder, a prototype for the pneumatic tyre and a 'rainbow machine'.

By 1670, scientists knew a Moon landing was way off.

'They'd made so many discoveries in physics and astronomy in 30 years that they could see that flying to the Moon was not on,' said Dr Chapman.

As it turned out, Wilkins was a little over 300 years ahead of his time - Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in 1969 - an anniversary celebrated on Monday.

Apollo 11: The inventor was over 300 years before his time

Top prosecutors from 14 states back compensation for those sickened by US nuclear weapons testing

Susan Montoya Bryan, 

The Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and top prosecutors from 13 other states are throwing their support behind efforts to compensate people sickened by exposure to radiation during nuclear weapons testing.

The Democratic officials sent a letter Wednesday to congressional leader, saying “it’s time for the federal government to give back to those who sacrificed so much.”

The letter refers to the estimated half a million people who lived within a 150-mile (240-kilometer) radius of the Trinity Test site in southern New Mexico, where the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945. It also pointed to thousands of people in Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Montana and Guam who currently are not eligible under the existing compensation program.

The U.S. Senate voted recently to expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act as part of a massive defense spending bill. Supporters are hopeful the U.S. House will include the provisions in its version of the bill, and President Joe Biden has indicated his support.

"We finally have an opportunity to right this historic wrong,” Torrez said in a statement.

The hit summer film “Oppenheimer” about the top-secret Manhattan Project and the dawn of the nuclear age during World War II brought new attention to a decadeslong efforts to extend compensation for families who were exposed to fallout and still grapple with related illness.

It hits close to home for Torrez, who spent summers visiting his grandmother in southern New Mexico, who lived about 70 miles (110 kilometers) from where the Trinity Test was conducted. She used rainwater from her cistern for cooking and cleaning, unaware that it was likely contaminated as a result of the detonation.

The attorneys in their letter mentioned the work of a team of researchers who mapped radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons tests in the U.S., starting with the Trinity Test in 1945. The model shows the explosions carried out in New Mexico and Nevada between 1945 and 1962 led to widespread radioactive contamination, with Trinity making a significant contribution to exposure in New Mexico. Fallout reached 46 states as well as parts of Canada and Mexico.

“Without any warning or notification, this one test rained radioactive material across the homes, water, and food of thousands of New Mexicans,” the letter states. “Those communities experienced the same symptoms of heart disease, leukemia, and other cancers as the downwinders in Nevada.”

The letter also refers to an assessment by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which acknowledged that exposure rates in public areas from the Trinity explosion were measured at levels 10,000 times higher than currently allowed.

U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, the New Mexico Democrat who has been leading the effort to expand the compensation program to include New Mexico's downwinders and others in the West, held a listening session in Albuquerque last Thursday. Those exposed to radiation while working in uranium mines and mills spoke at the gathering about their experiences.

Luján in an interview called it a tough issue, citing the concerns about cost that some lawmakers have and the tears that are often shared by families who have had to grapple with cancer and other health problems as a result of exposure.

“It's important for everyone to learn these stories and embrace what happened,” he said, “so that we can all make things better.”

Susan Montoya Bryan, The Associated Press

US to Build Robot Army to Counter China's Growing Power

SOCIETY31 August 2023

ByPETER LAYTON, THE CONVERSATION

The United States military plans to start using thousands of autonomous weapons systems in the next two years in a bid to counter China's growing power, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks announced in a speech on Monday.

The so-called Replicator initiative aims to work with defense and other tech companies to produce high volumes of affordable systems for all branches of the military.

Military systems capable of various degrees of independent operation have become increasingly common over the past decade or so.

But the scale and scope of the US announcement makes clear the future of conflict has changed: the age of warfighting robots is upon us.

An idea whose time has come

Over the past decade, there has been considerable development of advanced robotic systems for military purposes. Many of these have been based on modifying commercial technology, which itself has become more capable, cheaper and more widely available.

More recently, the focus has shifted onto experimenting with how to best use these in combat. Russia's war in Ukraine has demonstrated that the technology is ready for real-world deployment.

Loitering munitions, a form of robot air vehicle, have been widely used to find and attack armored vehicles and artillery. Ukrainian naval attack drones have paralyzed Russia's Black Sea fleet, forcing their crewed warships to stay in port.

Military robots are an idea whose time has come.

Robots everywhere

In her speech, Hicks talked of a perceived urgent need to change how wars are fought. She declared, in somewhat impenetrable Pentagon-speak, that the new Replicator program would

field attritable autonomous systems at scale of multiple thousands, in multiple domains, within the next 18 to 24 months.

Decoding this, "autonomous" means a robot that can carry out complex military missions without human intervention.

"Attritable" means the robot is cheap enough that it can be placed at risk and lost if the mission is of high priority. Such a robot is not quite designed to be disposable, but it would be reasonably affordable so many can be bought and combat losses replaced.

Finally, "multiple domains" means robots on land, at sea, in the air and in space. In short, robots everywhere for all kinds of tasks.

The robot mission

For the US military, Russia is an "acute threat" but China is the "pacing challenge" against which to benchmark its military capabilities.

China's People's Liberation Army is seen as having a significant advantage in terms of "mass": it has more people, more tanks, more ships, more missiles and so on. The US may have better-quality equipment, but China wins on quantity.

By quickly building thousands of "attritable autonomous systems", the Replicator program will now give the US the numbers considered necessary to win future major wars.

The imagined future war of most concern is a hypothetical battle for Taiwan, which some postulate could soon begin. Recent tabletop wargames have suggested large swarms of robots could be the decisive element for the US in defeating any major Chinese invasion.

However, Replicator is also looking further ahead, and aims to institutionalize mass production of robots for the long term. Hicks argues:

We must ensure [China's] leadership wakes up every day, considers the risks of aggression, and concludes, "today is not the day" – and not just today, but every day, between now and 2027, now and 2035, now and 2049, and beyond.

A brave new world?

One great concern about autonomous systems is whether their use can conform to the laws of armed conflict.

Optimists argue robots can be carefully programmed to follow rules, and in the heat and confusion of combat they may even obey better than humans.

Pessimists counter by noting not all situations can be foreseen, and robots may well misunderstand and attack when they should not. They have a point.

Among earlier autonomous military systems, the Phalanx close-in point defense gun and the Patriot surface-to-air missile have both misperformed.

Used only once in combat, during the first Gulf War in 1991, the Phalanx fired at a chaff decoy cloud rather than countering the attacking anti-ship missile. The more modern Patriot has proven effective in shooting down attacking ballistic missiles, but also twice shot down friendly aircraft during the second Gulf War in 2003, killing their human crews.

Clever design may overcome such problems in future autonomous systems. However, Hicks promised a "responsible and ethical approach to AI and autonomous systems" in her speech – which suggests any system able to kill targets will still need formal authorization from a human to do so.

A global change

The US may be the first nation to field large numbers of autonomous systems, but other countries will be close behind. China is an obvious candidate, with great strength in both artificial intelligence and combat drone production.

However, because much of the technology behind autonomous military drones has been developed for civilian purposes, it is widely available and relatively cheap. Autonomous military systems are not just for the great powers, but could also soon be fielded by many middle and smaller powers.

Libya and Israel, among others, have reportedly deployed autonomous weapons, and Turkish-made drones have proved important in the Ukraine war.

Australia is another country keenly interested in the possibilities of autonomous weapons. The Australian Defence Force is today building the MQ-28 Ghostbat autonomous fast jet air vehicle, robot mechanized armored vehicles, robot logistic trucks and robot submarines, and is already using the Bluebottle robot sailboat for maritime border surveillance in the Timor Sea.

And in a move that foreshadowed the Replicator initiative, the Australian government last month called for local companies to suggest how they might build very large numbers of military aerial drones in-country in the next few years.

At least one Australian company, SYPAQ, is already on the move, sending a number of its cheap, cardboard-bodied drones to bolster Ukraine's defenses.

Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University