What should the Biden administration prioritize in a policy agenda that promotes
Ensure access to vaccines and prioritize jobs and income – Camille M. Busette
Camille Busette, Director of the Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative
First, ensure access to vaccines for COVID-19. Second, because income and wealth are so often determinants of the types of options that are open to us, it is important to prioritize jobs and income. Black men do not participate in the labor force at the levels they should or could—so, I would encourage the administration to focus on raising the Black male labor participation rate. Third, Black women should make more money than they do but because of race and gender they make 63 cents to every dollar a non-Hispanic white man makes. So, continue to champion raising the minimum wage and pay particular attention to accelerating the move to a higher minimum wage for the types of jobs that Black women typically perform.
Baby bonds and the child tax credit – E.J. Dionne, Jr.
E.J. Dionne, Jr., W. Averell Harriman Chair and Senior Fellow in Governance Studies
Racial injustice and economic injustice aggravate and reinforce each other. We need policies that begin to address both by confronting the large gap between Blacks and whites in both wealth and in income. And most policies aimed at reducing these disparities will also benefit Americans with low-incomes and low-wealth across racial lines.
The Black-white wealth gap is well documented. A Brookings paper by Kriston McIntosh, Emily Moss, Ryan Nunn, and Jay Shambaugh showed that the net worth of a typical white family is roughly ten times greater than that of the typical Black family. Brookings’s Andre Perry, Jonathan Rothwell, and David Harshbarger showed that one important cause of the gap is the under-evaluation of homes in predominantly Black neighborhoods.
In a blog last summer, I made the case for “baby bonds,” reintroduced in Congress this month by Sen. Cory Booker and Rep. Ayanna Pressley. Their bill would give every American child a $1,000 “American Opportunity Account” at birth. The government would add up to $2,000 annually, on family income. At 18, the fund holder could access the account for “allowable uses,” including buying a home, financing higher education, or starting a business. Booker has estimated that by age 18, low-income account holders would have access to nearly $50,000 in capital.
On the income side, President Biden’s version of an expanded and refundable child tax credit that he included for one year in his economic rescue plan would cut child poverty in half and lift more than 2 million Black children above the poverty line. Pushed in Congress by Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Sens. Booker, Michael Bennet, and Sherrod Brown, expansions along these lines should be made permanent.
We need practical policies that can make a large difference in millions of lives. Both baby bonds and the child credit meet this test.
Enforce higher standards on artificial intelligence – Alex Engler
Alex Engler, David M. Rubenstein Fellow in Governance Studies
As algorithmic systems proliferate across services in employment, health, finance, housing, and transportation, some continue to perpetrate long-standing biases against African Americans. However, the careful use of algorithms has also shown the potential to reduce discrimination, and thus the Biden-Harris administration has an opportunity to improve racial equity by enforcing higher standards on artificial intelligence (AI).
As I argue in a recent op-ed and upcoming Brookings report, one such area is employment algorithms. Proactive changes by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission could provide better oversight of the AI systems that analyze resumes, perform automated interviews, and predict employee outcomes. Tens of millions of job candidates go through these systems every year, and enforcing best algorithmic practices could help reduce employment discrimination against African Americans, which research indicates…
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