Pandemic especially tough on people of color

DETROIT » People of color have not only been hit harder by the deadly coronavirus than have Americans overall, but they’re also bearing the brunt of the pandemic’s financial impact, according to a recent survey from the The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The financial picture is especially grim for Hispanic Americans, while some African Americans face the dual burden of being disproportionately affected by the virus itself while also struggling to pay bills due to the economic fallout.

The poll found that 61% of Hispanic Americans say they’ve experienced some kind of household income loss as a result of the outbreak, including job losses, unpaid leave, pay cuts and fewer scheduled hours. That’s compared with 46% of Americans overall. Thirty-seven percent of Latinos and 27% of black

Americans say they’ve been unable to pay at least one type of bill as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Only 17% of white Americans say the same.

“If our policies do not adequately address these shortfalls and the racial disparities in income, wealth, employment and wages, then we’re going to see the same pattern that we have seen historically,” said Valerie Wilson, director of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity and the economy. “It’s going to take much longer for these families to recover — if they ever recover economically.”

The survey, conducted in mid-April, found that 21% of Hispanics have been unable to make a rent or mortgage payment as a result of the outbreak, while 23% have been unable to pay a credit card bill. That compares with 8% of white Americans in both cases. Black Americans are also slightly more likely than white Americans to have been unable to pay a credit card bill, at 15%.

New Mexico resident Denise Abraham, a retired teacher and librarian, said her 34-year-old son has experienced a loss of income after he quit his restaurant job because he didn’t want to potentially expose his family to the virus.

“As a community, I don’t see a lot of anger, just a lot of sadness and worry about what’s to come,” Abraham, a Hispanic woman, said, adding that she’s worried about the Navajo Nation and people who are in the country illegally becoming infected. “But what this shows now is who we really need and who’s really doing the labor to carry our economy. It’s always been on the shoulders of poor people.”

While income losses have hit Americans across the board, layoffs have been especially concentrated among lower income and less educated people. Twenty-eight percent of Americans without college degrees say they’ve had a layoff in their household, compared with 19% of those with degrees.