Making the Fifties Real and Great Again

Another part of making America great again are the beliefs of the fifties. You really have to be around during that time period. There was a carry over into the sixties. August 28,1955, fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was lynched after being tortured by two white men near Money Mississippi. The story as detailed.

The two brothers raided Till’s uncle cabin where Till was staying. Kid did not realize this was Mississippi and not Chicago Illinois. In the fifties? People would have been upset in Chicago too as prejudice was still prominent and not just isolated to the South.

His supposed crime? Talking, flirting, or whistling in some manner towards, the white and married proprietor of the local grocery store. The husband did not take kindly to it if it did occur and neither did his half-brother. Torture, lynching, and body disposed of in the Tallahatchie River.

Three days later his body was recovered. From the appearance of the torture and beating Emmett suffered before his death, an open casket funeral was not recommended. Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley insisted on an open casket funeral. Such would allow people to see the extent to which people wo go in discrimination. The murder and death of her son. Seventy years, two weeks, and a few days have passed since Emmett Till’s murder. It appears Pres. Trump wishes to make discrimination real and great again.

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“Black Unemployment Rises Sharply Under Trump,” CEPR

Donald Trump has made no secret of his longing for a time when discrimination against Black people was not just common, but totally legal. His policies as president seem designed to bring back those times.

He has largely shut down the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department and what is left of it seems mostly devoted to harassing those who pursued efforts to reverse centuries of discrimination rather than stopping ongoing discrimination against Blacks as workers, homebuyers, or consumers. This also seems to be the case with his drive against “antisemitism” at major universities.

Trump also seems to be determined to rewrite American history so that young people will have less knowledge of the nation’s history of racism. And he even wants to improve the image of two and half centuries of slavery in the American colonies and the United States. Given this backdrop, it should not be a surprise that unemployment for Black workers has soared in the first seven months of the Trump administration. Although it is impressive that white workers seem to have largely escaped the damage to date.

The unemployment rate for Black workers was 6.2 percent in January, the last month of the Biden administration. That was already 1.4 percentage points above the record low of 4.8 percent recorded in April of 2023. The labor market had weakened somewhat in the second half of 2024, and as Jared Bernstein and I noted, Black workers tend to be disproportionately benefited by a strong labor market and hurt by a weak one.

Anyhow, since January, the unemployment rate for Black workers has jumped by 1.3 percentage points to 7.5 percent, which would be a very bad recession unemployment rate for white workers. But the really striking part of the story is that unemployment for white workers has barely budged, rising from 3.5
percent in January to 3.7 percent in August, which is still 0.1 percentage point below the 3.8 percent rate from last November

It would be wrong to conclude that white workers are not feeling any labor market pain. The pace of wage growth has slowed from just over 4.0 percent in 2023 and 2024 to 3.5 percent in recent months. And with tariffs and mass deportations pushing prices higher, this translates to considerably slower real wage growth. 

There also are many fewer workers who feel comfortable quitting jobs. That falloff cannot be driven just by Black workers. Clearly many white workers must also feel their labor market prospects have worsened. 

But using the unemployment rate, which is a key labor market metric, Trump has done a remarkable job of surgically attacking Black workers.  I guess his MAGA crew are very happy.