U.S. economy under Trump has been good to African Americans, says America’s first black billionaire
BY ALAN GREEN
Robert L. Johnson, the pioneering founder of Black Entertainment Tv (BET) and the first black billionaire in the nation, said during an appearance on CNBC that the U.S. economy has been good to African Americans under Donald Trump. Johnson, who is now the owner and chairman of Bethesda, the Maryland-based asset management RLJ Companies, based his assessment on the December jobs report showing that black workers’ unemployment was at its lowest since the Labor Department started tracking it.
“You have to take encouragement from what’s happening in the labor force and the job market. When you look at African-American unemployment, in over 50 years since the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been keeping the numbers, you’ve never had two things: African-American unemployment this low and the spread between unemployment among whites and African-Americans narrowing.”
Indeed, black unemployment fell to 6.8 percent in December, then rose to 6.9 percent in March, according to the latest jobs report released Friday. But, despite the improved black employment, black unemployment remains almost the double of white unemployment, which is at 3.6 percent.
Robert L. Johnson, who, in 1979 founded BET, the most prominent television network targeting African American audiences—which was acquired by Viacom in 2001—elaborates:
“That absolutely means the jobs market is soliciting employees who have been out of the labor force, some of it just based on discrimination, some of it based on changes in education, access and technology changes.”
Praising the Trump administration, Johnson also said in his appearance on CNBC: “if you take into account the Trump tax cut, I believe the economy is on a strong growth path.”
The Trump’s tax cuts, rushed through the legislative apparatus, are the largest one-time reduction in corporate tax rate in U.S. history. They also lowered taxes for the vast majority of Americans, as well as small-business owners. They were billed as a path to driving up wages and increase job growth.
Donald Trump, who is known for his propensity to brag, claims credit for the lower black unemployment. To no one’s surprise, he tweeted about Johnson’s statements on the CNBC show. The fact, however, is that black unemployment had steadily declined during President Obama’s two terms, from 17 percent in 2010 down to 7.8 percent by the advent of the Trump administration.
Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP’s Washington bureau, says:
“Most of the programmatic work was set into motion before the last administration was leaving.”
Moreover, some economists don’t share Johnson’s rosy assessment of the improved employment rate among African Americans. Darrick Hamilton, an economics and urban policy professor at The New School states:
“Work is more precarious today than it was in the past, and in particular, black individuals are more likely to be in precarious employment scenarios with jobs that face greater wage and work-hour volatility.”
Hamilton also says.
“Bob Johnson’s in the billionaire’s club with Donald Trump, so it’s not surprising that they align in their vision on labor.”
He adds:
“A 6.9 percent unemployment is perhaps in a historical sense something to be happy about, but if the white unemployment rate were at 6.9 percent, we would consider this catastrophic and be very alarmed.”