Racism impacts not only impoverished and struggling black Americans, but it also impacts the economy adversely. It took 400 years for capitalism to calculate the costs of racism to its bottom line, which goes to show that systematic racism in this country is built in its DNA. We are a racist country no matter what anyone says. Just ask the Native Americans, the Jews, and the Asians. They all suffered at the hands of white supremacist racists. Finally, some US corporations are realizing racism means less revenues. Many are still slaves to their caricaturist white managements, which refuses to accept the inevitable. But the needle is positively moving in the right direction.
In an article that Chauncey Alcom wrote for CNN Business, the evidence of this realization is beginning to take shape in the higher number of black graduating students landing more jobs due to more interviews and a conscious reaching out by these corporations.
Alcom writes:
Let us applaud Citi and Dana M. Peterson and Catherine L. Mann for their work in making a positive impact when it comes to nipping racism at the bud.
GEORGE FLOYD AND CITIBANK
Almost simultaneous to the horrific murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 at the hands of a white supremacist policeman, Citi, in September of 2020, published a study detailing the real costs of racism to U.S. economy. Since 2000, it calculated the figure to reach $16 Trillion, which represents $800 Billion a year. Every year.
You see, when a rich white family makes lots of money in America, it will most likely park it in equities. This family already enjoys a luxurious lifestyle. Its excess income plays zero role in shoring up our consumer economy.
The opposite is not true because historically black families have lacked the same standards of living that the white population enjoys in this country. So, not only would banks benefit by lending more money, but black families would have an impact on consumer spending. Possibly in the hundreds of billions of dollars for every year their economic conditions improve by landing higher paid white collar jobs.
Even local, state, and the federal government benefit more because capital gains taxes on parked money is zero, as compared to the billions of income and sales taxes government might collect from more consumerism.
We should credit the uptick of hiring more black college student to the murder of George Floyd, but we should also think that the Citi study played an instrumental role in U.S. corporations realizing that racism hurts their bottom line. Across any industry for every year racism in this country persists.
Let us applaud Citi and Dana M. Peterson and Catherine L. Mann for their work in making a positive impact when it comes to nipping racism at the bud.
Let us also hope this trend continues in the future. America benefits more economically when all its children benefit equally.