2020 has been a year of losses. First, lives have been lost—around the world, and in the United States in particular. Those lost lives are disproportionately Black lives. 2020 saw the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless others at the hands of police, and the deaths of more than 46,000 Black Americans from COVID-19. According to the American Public Media Research Lab, the novel coronavirus mortality rate for Black Americans is at least double that of white Americans. The disparity is profound: had Black Americans died of COVID-19 at the same rate as white Americans, more than 22,000 Black Americans would still be alive today.
The economic burden of the pandemic has also fallen more heavily on Black workers and Black business owners. As of October, the unemployment rate for Black Americans stood at nearly 11 percent, versus 6 percent for white Americans.2 The Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that more than 40 percent of Black-owned businesses in the United States closed between February and April 2020, versus about 17 percent of white-owned businesses. Over those three months, the number of Black business owners dropped by a staggering 440,000.3 The losses are likely to grow: in September, nearly half of Black business owners said that without federal support, they would only be able to remain in business for another six months.
The events of this year are emblematic of long-standing inequities and are rooted in a long history of systemic discrimination. According to the Federal Reserve, the typical Black American family has eight times less wealth than a white family. The racial wealth gap has profound consequences, both for Black families and for the US economy; our previous research revealed that it will cost the US economy between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion in GDP output each year.
Despite all this—and in part because of all this—2020 has also emerged as a moment of opportunity, a possible inflection point for addressing inequity in a profound way. The global protests following the killing of George Floyd demonstrated the widespread awareness of inequity and a willingness to do something about it. Fortune 1000 companies have responded, committing $66 billion to racial-equity initiatives. But how can this potential be tapped in a way that delivers meaningful, systemic change?