Protestors across the country have taken to the streets of American cities to demand justice for George Floyd, a black man who died after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a white police officer. As protesters call attention to the nation’s uneven treatment of black Americans at the hands of law enforcement, the country is also in the midst of an unprecedented economic shock that is hitting communities of color harder than white Americans.
Black adults are twice as likely to have been laid off or furloughed when compared to white adults, finds a Fortune-SurveyMonkey poll of 4,109 U.S. adults between May 20-26. Since the onset of the coronavirus outbreaks, 24% of black workers say they have lost their job. That compares to 20% of Hispanic workers, 19% of Asian workers, and 11% of white workers.
The coronavirus shutdowns were uneven. Businesses in the service and tourism industries—cruise lines, restaurants, retail stores, and nail salons—tended to be hit the hardest, and many of those rely heavily on non-white workers.
And it’s not just unequal job losses—pay cuts have also been unequally doled out. The Fortune-SurveyMonkey poll finds that while 28% of white workers got their hours or pay cut, that rose to 29% of Hispanic workers, 31% of black workers, and 37% of Asian workers.
And among black workers who retained their jobs thus far, 56% are still worried about losing them. Meanwhile, that figure is 35% among white workers. The majority of Hispanic and Asian workers are also worried about losing their job, at 56% and 66%, respectively.
*Methodology: The Fortune-SurveyMonkey poll was conducted among a national sample of 4,109 adults in the U.S. between May 20-26. This survey’s modeled error estimate is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. The findings have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography.
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Lyron Foster is a Hawaii based African American Musician, Author, Actor, Blogger, Filmmaker, Philanthropist and Multinational Serial Tech Entrepreneur.