Thursday, March 28, 2024

Black Federal Workers Deeply Affected by Trump’s Shutdown

TSA, black federal workers
WASHINGTON – OCTOBER 8: A Transportation Security Administration Agent waits for travelers during “Operation Railsafe” at Union Station October 8, 2010 in Washington, DC. Amtrak, the United States’ intercity passenger rail operator, increased its patrols of Amtrak Police, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and other law enforcement agencies during its “Operation Railsafe” anti-terrorism exercise. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

*With Donald Trump’s government shutdown now in its fourth week, new data reveals Black federal workers, in particular, are being hit hardest by the president’s petty hijacking of the nation.

Per Atlanta’s 11 Alive News:

According to numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, African-Americans historically make up a higher percentage of federal workers than they do in the private sector.

Data shows African-Americans make up around 13 percent of the U.S. population, and make up about 10.5 percent of the civilian workforce. However, they make up 18.4 percent of the federal workforce.

Where it makes a financial difference in terms of the shutdown – black families have a fraction of the wealth of white families. According to the Census Bureau, for every $100 a white family earns, black families only earn $6.

OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Stock Trader Wants to Recreate Black Wall Street ; He’ll Teach 1K Beginners in 2019

So what does that mean when black government workers start missing a paycheck?

Jamiles Lartey, a reporter with The Guardian, broke it down to Ari Shapiro of NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

The profound racial wealth gap in the U.S. makes it far more difficult for the average black American to sustain a long period without a paycheck, as compared with white Americans.

We should note that that disparity in wealth is probably much less acute among federal workers. We don’t have numbers of black federal workers’ wealth versus white federal workers’ wealth. It’s probably much closer than the broader disparity. But overall, black Americans are less likely to have friends, family, networks, access to credit, you name it. Things that will help you survive a period without a paycheck, they’re less likely to have it.

Emory political science professor Andra Gillispie said, “Blacks and Latinos have far less wealth, which means in a crisis, you don’t even have the savings to dip into which will put people in a more precarious situation.”

Gillispie also noted that Black government contractors most likely won’t recover the lost pay after the shutdown ends.

In related news, TSA agents who are forced to work without pay are reportedly playing explicit rap music at arriving passengers in New York’s JFK Airport.

One Twitter user wrote, “TSA has officially stopped giving a f—. SICKO MODE (dirty version) is playing on the speakers at JFK lmfaooo,” referencing the Travis Scott and Drake collaboration, PEOPLE reports.

“Knowing that our man Kanye’s masterpiece poop diddy woop scoop was blasted through jfk airport by tsa today at 6:30 AM IS THE FUNNIEST THING IVE HEARD,” tweeted another in reference to the bizarre lyrics on Kanye West’s track “Lift Yourself.”

A TSA spokesperson tells PEOPLE, “TSA doesn’t have access to the public address system at JFK, I have been advised that the system is accessed by the individual operators and the [Port Authority of New York and New Jersey].

We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!

YOU MAY LIKE

SEARCH

- Advertisement -

TRENDING