Don Cravins Jr.
Senior Vice President for Policy and Executive Director of the National Urban League’s Washington Bureau
Twitter: @DCravins
By the end of 2017, the U.S. economy appeared to be booming. The stock market was at record highs; companies were competing with one another to announce bonuses for employees in response to federal tax cuts; and the unemployment rate dipped to 4.1%, its lowest since 2000. But in minority communities, many of these gains were passing folks by. Blacks are significantly less likely to invest in the stock market, so the bull market charged right past; the wealth gap between whites and Blacks continues to expand despite a seemingly resurgent economy; and the Black unemployment rate (6.8% at the end of 2017) remains several points higher than the overall average.