Exhibits A, B and C

The Trump administration doesn’t believe systemic racism is a problem in America. Should the president and his aides wish to open their tightly shut eyes, we can show them a few things. First, a new report from the Center for an Urban Future reveals that in New York City, massive chasms persist in wages along racial lines.

This is partly because different groups often gravitate toward different industries, itself a complex process resulting from personal choice, educational disparities and bias. Black New Yorkers, a quarter of the city’s population, account for just 7% of its advertising workforce, 9% in computer systems design, 7% in securities.

But even within sectors where Blacks are well represented, they earn a mere fraction of what whites take home. On average, Black beauty salon workers make less than half of whites; Black postal workers, $41,261 to whites’ $59,277; Black department store workers, $15,870 to whites’ $44,674.

While there isn’t always a straight line between bias and economic disadvantage, it’s willful ignorance to suggest the cumulative effect of generations of unfairness doesn’t weigh heavily on the backs of Black Americans.

Add to that growing evidence that African-Americans see equivalent homes appraised for less than whites do, and have stubbornly unequal access to the best teachers and schools, and to quality health care, and it’s easy to see why the Black-white economic divide is as wide as it was more than a half-century ago.

But first things first. To combat a problem, you have to acknowledge it exists.