Economics
Unrest Spotlights Depth of Black Americans’ Economic Struggle
- Blacks also dying at double the rate of whites from Covid-19
- In Minneapolis, white families earn triple that of blacks
A protester kneels during a call for justice for George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 1.
Photographer: KEREM YUCEL/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Protests sweeping U.S. cities over the videotaped death of an unarmed black man at the hands of police are accentuating other grim realities of racial disparity in America: African Americans lag other groups by nearly every economic measure.
In Minneapolis, where George Floyd’s death set off the protests, the median income of a black household is about a third of the $77,224 a white household takes in. Nationwide, black households earn about two-thirds of the median white household.