Giving Compass' Take:

•Liz Hipple, Shanteal Lake, and Maria Monroe, at Equitable Growth, explain how Juneteenth reminds us of the work we still have left in the fight for racial freedom.

• How can you make this Juneteenth a day to spread awareness of pervasive systemic racism? How does coronavirus exacerbate racial injustices? What can you do to continue the fight for equality long after Juneteenth has ended?

• Read about how Juneteenth reminds us of how slavery remains relevant in mass incarceration.

While Juneteenth marks a day of resilience, endurance, and emancipation for Black Americans, this year’s anniversary is also a harsh reminder of the delayed freedom granted in 1865. For many, there is a renewed interest in the day traditionally meant to celebrate freedom, as the country grapples with two viruses eating away at the nation—COVID-19 and White supremacy.

Black workers, especially Black female workers, have lower salaries than White workers with similar levels of education. While the median White male worker with a college degree earns $31.25 an hour, the median Black male worker with a college degree only earns only $23.08.

Black Americans also experience a disparity in intergenerational mobility, or the relationship between their income as an adult and their parents’ income at a similar age. While Latinx and Asian Americans have intergenerational mobility rates converging with those of White Americans, Black and Native Americans do not. One reason for this is that even when raised in high-income families, Black children are far more likely to experience downward mobility.

The health disparities that Black Americans experience in conditions such as hypertension and inflammation are an example of the limits of an economic framework for understanding racial disparities. One reason is the discrimination and racism experienced daily by Black Americans, which exacts a physical toll that increases the incidence of these types of conditions.

We need to enact policies that begin to eradicate economic racial inequality as soon as possible. While our nation made some progress toward making the U.S. economy and society much more equitable since enslaved Black Americans gained their freedom in 1865, the legacy of Jim Crow and the continuing economic racial discrimination shows how much further we have to go.

Read the full article about how Juneteenth reminds us of how much work we have to do by Liz Hipple, Shanteal Lake, and Maria Monroe at Equitable Growth.