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☆ Reaching maximum employment will help close the racial wealth gap, says Howard University economics professor William Spriggs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Macklin Fishman | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Reaching maximum employment will help close the racial wealth gap, according to AFL-CIO chief economist and Howard University economics professor William Spriggs. In an interview with CNBC, Spriggs said the impact of discrimination against Black employees is less acute when the labor market operates at full employment. "When we have a really poor labor market, white high school dropouts do better than Black people with associate degrees," Spriggs explained. While Black Americans do withdraw from the labor market when the market collapses, Spriggs said this is not always reflected in the data on Black labor force participation. Implicit bias can also affect economic data and policy by dictating the questions that analysts ask, Spriggs said.

☆ How the Fed can close the racial wealth gap: AFL-CIO's William Spriggs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Macklin Fishman | Lindsey Jacobson | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailHow the Fed can close the racial wealth gap: AFL-CIO's William SpriggsAFL-CIO chief economist and Howard University economics professor William Spriggs says that the impact of discrimination against Black employees is less acute when the labor market operates at full employment. He tells CNBC how the Federal Reserve can close the racial wealth gap and how an economic slowdown might affect Black workers.

☆ HBCU students diversify alternative investing with the help of Wall Street’s biggest firms
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Frank Holland | In Frank-Holland | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The AltFinance Fellowship is the brainchild of top alternative investment firms Ares Management, Apollo Global Management and Oaktree Capital Management. Selected students will also receive a scholarship of up to $10,000 if they're sophomores, while juniors and seniors can receive up to $15,000. Partnering schools include Clark Atlanta University, Howard University, Morehouse College and Spelman College. The private equity, private credit and commercial real estate industry has about $10 trillion in assets under management, according to data provider Preqin. "This is not a charitable activity," Howard Marks, co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, told CNBC.

The 51-year-old Fulton County district attorney will need that kind of tenacity if she decides to bring criminal charges against Trump, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Willis, a Democrat, has taken an aggressive approach in the Trump investigation, subpoenaing some of his allies including Republican U.S. "It doesn't matter if you're rich, poor, Black, white, Democrat or Republican," Willis, who is Black, told CNN last year. Trump, who in November announced another run for the presidency in 2024, has denied wrongdoing and has called Willis a "Radical Left Prosecutor." To assist with the Trump investigation, Willis retained private Atlanta lawyer John Floyd, who wrote a guide on prosecuting state racketeering charges and worked with Willis on the teacher case.

That would be the kind of tenacity Willis, 51, would need if she decides to bring criminal charges against the Republican former president. Willis, a Democrat, has taken an aggressive approach in the Trump investigation, subpoenaing some of his allies including Republican U.S. To assist with the Trump investigation, Willis retained private Atlanta lawyer John Floyd, who wrote a guide on prosecuting state racketeering charges and worked with Willis on the teacher case. Willis told a judge on Jan. 24 that a decision on whether to bring criminal charges was "imminent" after a special grand jury completed its work. Portions of the grand jury's report are expected to be publicly released on Thursday, though any recommendations on criminal charges will remain sealed for now.

But mainstream economic data doesn't always reflect the struggle, according to William Spriggs, Howard University economics professor and chief economist for the AFL-CIO. Throughout the last year, employers claimed they were struggling to staff properly, citing a lack of workers. But as the workforce picked up, employers weren't actually hiring, Spriggs said. Specifically, he said, they weren't hiring Black workers. Watch the video to learn more about how implicit bias corrupts economic data and therefore our understanding of the current labor landscape.

Historically Black colleges and universities have been embroiled in a student housing crisis for decades. Fisk is believed to be the second U.S. higher education institution to utilize shipping containers for student housing after the College of Idaho implemented dorm-style containers in 2020. “The enrollment is growing so fast, and the shipping containers provide some sustainable flexibility. They all wanted to live in these shipping containers,” Frederiksen said. Meanwhile, other projects like the HBCU Healthy Housing (H3) Initiative from the Virginia-based advocacy group Student Housing of America are partnering with universities to build additional housing.

☆ The Biggest Debates and Opinions in 2022 - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +30 min

Opinion The 22 Debates That Made Us Rage, Roll Our Eyes, and Change Our Minds in 2022Debating is what we do here at Times Opinion. To many, she was an icon: She ruled for 70 years, presided over the transition from empire to commonwealth and served as a living link to the generation that won World War II. (Though Ben Bernanke, a former Fed chairman himself, wrote in The Times that that wasn’t going to happen.) The United States and its European allies poured weapons and aid into Ukraine, but how was this going to end? As 2022 draws to a close, the fighting continues and peace talks look as distant as ever — which probably means that the debates will continue.

☆ I was a medical student and accidentally blew up on Tiktok. Now I have a new side hustle as an influencer.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Rasha Aly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Norman Harris II, 25, a third-year medical student at Temple University in Philadelphia, who works as a student influencer. How many hours to dedicate to being a Tiktok influencer and a medical student is a balancing act. I want to preserve my brand — being a medical student at Philadelphia's Temple University who wants to make a social impact while having a comedic flair. Walking a tightrope between two careersBeing a student influencer and a medical student takes work — determining how many hours to dedicate to each profession is a balancing act. When I became a medical student, the YouTube videos became too long to edit.

☆ Meet a 26-year-old who acquired $1 million in real estate properties starting with an $18,000 loan. He explains his strategy, and why beginners should purchase their first homes through FHA.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Lisa Kailai Han | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

James Walker III has acquired $1 million in real estate properties at 26 years old. Four years ago, he used with an $18,000 loan to buy his first FHA property for $350,000. "So you see that genesis of both real estate and entrepreneurship coming in my formative years through seeing my parents really go big in real estate," he said. With an FHA loan, the property must be the borrower's primary residence for at least a year. You build this up foundationally and you set yourself up for the day where real estate surpasses your primary income."

☆ Roberta Flack has ALS, now ‘impossible to sing,’ rep says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

A representative for Roberta Flack announced Monday that the Grammy-winning musician has ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and can no longer sing. The progressive disease “has made it impossible to sing and not easy to speak,” Flack’s manager Suzanne Koga said in a release. Flack also plans to publish a children’s book co-written with Tonya Bolden, “The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music,” that month. Flack had a stroke in 2016 and spoke to The Associated Press a little over two years later about returning to performing. “I could sing any number of songs that I’ve recorded through the years, easily, I could sing them, but I’m going to pick those songs that move me,” Flack said.

That is why, leaders say, HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions will be even more important to students of color should the Supreme Court end affirmative action in college admissions. Allison ShelleyThe Supreme Court is hearing cases that challenge affirmative action policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. Although HBCUs are predominantly Black institutions, non-Black students made up 24% of HBCU enrollment in 2020, according to the NCES. That diversity is important to consider amid claims that HBCUs make race-conscious admissions unnecessary, said Marie Bigham, the founder and executive director of the race-conscious admissions advocacy group Admissions Community Cultivating Equity & Peace Today. Late last month, the coalition and students from across the country protested outside the Supreme Court as it weighed the cases.

☆ U.S. governors races carry high stakes for abortion, elections
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Daniel Trotta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The high stakes have brought increased money and attention to the state-level races, which typically get overshadowed in midterm elections by the fight for control of Congress. Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp, also looks likely to prevail against Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams in a rematch of their 2018 race. Democrats are expected to flip Republican-held governorships in the states of Maryland and Massachusetts, but they face tough battles in a couple of other Democratic states. ABORTION RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACYAs with congressional races across the country, Democratic candidates for governor have warned of the threats Republicans could pose to abortion rights and elections should they win on Tuesday. Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer has made abortion a focal point of her re-election campaign in Michigan, where voters also will consider a ballot measure that would safeguard abortion rights in the state's constitution.

☆ The unemployment rate for Black men fell in October, but so did labor force participation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Carmen Reinicke | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Joe Raedle | Getty ImagesThe unemployment rate for Black men ticked down in October while it rose for most other groups, but that may be because workers are dropping out of the labor force. For Black men, unemployment fell to 5.3% from 5.8% a month earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis. Though overall there is strength in the labor market, "this is not the tight labor market where people can just walk in and get a job no matter who they are." Overall Black unemployment ticked up led by Black women. In October, the unemployment rate for Black women jumped to 5.8% from 5.4% in September.

The local unemployment rate is already nearly a percentage point above the U.S. average of 3.5%. "It's very premature in my view to think about or be talking about pausing our rate hikes. The target federal funds rate is now in a range of between 3.75% and 4%, the highest since early 2008. In the 1970s and 1980s, Fed Chair Paul Volcker's attack on inflation sparked a recession that pushed the unemployment rate above 10%, then a post-World War II high. "I do worry about how rates affect the economy," Bostic said at the forum.

☆ Chadwick Boseman’s widow reflects on loving and losing him
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Lisa Respers France | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Simone Ledward Boseman is opening up about the death of her husband Chadwick Boseman in a new interview with Whoopi Goldberg. The “Black Panther” star died in 2020 at the age of 43 after a private battle with colon cancer. “It was been the most challenging two years I have ever had in my life,” Ledward Boseman said of how she’s processing the loss of her late husband. “Some days I’m doing worse than I’m really willing to acknowledge and other days I’m doing better than I feel comfortable admitting,” she said. The full interview will air Friday as part of “20/20 Presents Black Panther: In Search of Wakanda.”“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is in theaters November 11.

At homecomings this year, universities are increasing fees such as those charged vendors to fight off inflation and recoup some losses from the pandemic. Colleges and universities are not alone in feeling the economic impacts of post-pandemic homecomings. North Carolina Central University increased its rates by $50 this year compared to 2021, to $500 for food vendors and $400 for general merchandise sellers, because of rising inflation, according to documents. He sold out of more than 300 shirts on his first day of Hampton University's homecoming bazaar, pulling in more than $7,500 in sales. Now, he is gearing up for Grambling University's homecoming in Louisiana.

☆ Andrew Young, McGraw Hill link for new HBCU scholarship program
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

A new scholarship program for students at historically black colleges and universities bears the name of former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young. Young, along with Georgia legislators, civil rights leaders, students and others gathered Friday on the steps of the Woodruff Library at Atlanta University Center to celebrate the creation of the new Andrew Young HBCU Scholarship program. McGraw Hill Education, an arm of McGraw Hill publishing, put an initial $50,000 into the program, which will fund 10 first-year students next fall who plan to attend an HBCU. The idea behind the scholarship program came from Matt Daniels, the chair of the law and human rights division at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C. And it’s certainly a good investment for us.”Follow NBCBLK on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

"And I feel like us being mostly Hispanic, mostly African American students, mostly Caribbean students, we don't get to learn a lot about our cultures and the ways that we were thriving. Shannah Henderson speaks to a student during Brooklyn Preparatory High School's AP African American studies course in Brooklyn, N.Y. on Wednesday. Henderson said Trevor Packer, the senior vice president and the head of the AP Program and the instruction division, responded. She said that because she doesn't have a degree in African American studies, she was also required to take online courses at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. AP African American Studies is multidisciplinary, drawing from literature, the arts and humanities, political science, geography and science.

She said that she did not see herself reflected on other dance teams on campus. The history of majorette-style dance teamsStarting in the 1960s, majorette dance teams became popular at HBCUs for their high energy movements that infuse jazz, West African and hip-hop dance styles. The majorette dance teams often perform alongside a marching band in glittery outfits while doing flips in the air or showcasing other gymnast moves. Those performances, usually held at HBCU football games and homecoming events, were an opportunity for majorette dance teams to show off their skill and even battle with rival schools. Another coach for the team, Princess Alintah, agreed, saying groups like the USC Cardinal Divas show that majorette dance teams are not monolithic.

☆ How Gen Z is rewriting dating, marriage and family plans for their 20s: 'I have so much stuff I have to worry about'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Jennifer Liu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

It's an interesting trend for today's Gen Z students who are short-term anxious but long-term confident about their work and lives, says Christine Cruzvergara, chief education strategy officer at Handshake, the job-search platform for college students. Pragmatic goals around career, self-discovery and funSome Gen Zers are trading traditional life milestone goals for ones they have more control over. Speaking as a recent grad, Jade Walters agrees that taking control of her career means de-prioritizing other life goals. The 23-year-old is a Howard University grad who in her final months of school launched the Ninth Semester, an early-career resource for Gen Z professionals. Jade Walters, 23, works a corporate job in Chicago and runs the Ninth Semester, an early-career resource for Gen Z professionals.

☆ 86% of Gen Z interns think a recession is coming—and it's changing their approach to their careers
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Jennifer Liu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Cassidy Case is a few months into her fall internship, but she's already planning ahead for summer. As young workers search for stability and meaning when entering the working world, they're changing their behaviors and mindsets to "recession-proof" their futures. At this stage of their lives and careers, Gen Zers want flexibility in the way they live and work most of all, Cruzvergara says. At the University of Arkansas, 21-year-old senior Oliver Sims also has his summer work plans locked in. "You could work remotely from your parents' house for a company with an office based in New York."

☆ Here are the 2 things summer-associate candidates should do to get hired at Alston & Bird, according to the chief legal-talent partner
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Rachel Durose | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Alston & Bird receives between 5,000 and 7,000 applications annually and hires about 60 students. Additionally, 90% of the company's 1,507 employees have reported Alston & Bird is a great place to work, according to the workplace-rating platform Great Place to Work. Alston & Bird receives between 5,000 to 7,000 applicants annually for its summer-associate program and typically hires about 60 students. Alston & Bird has offices in 13 cities across the world, including Dallas and New York City. Highlight the practice's valuesThe interview process will begin with a 20-minute screening, conducted by two Alston & Bird lawyers, Price said.

I was continuously berated with various comments.”A spokesperson for the UNC Board of Governors declined to comment on the lawsuit. Justin CookLeigh, Younge, Kapadia and Long painted a different picture from Brown’s of the professors in their open letter. Neither Leigh nor Younge, who were both at the university during Brown’s time there, reported having negative interactions with Brown, they said. “We acknowledge the fact that our experiences are unique to ourselves and not everybody shares those same experiences,” Younge added. In response to the letter on Brown's behalf, Brown’s attorney, Artur Davis, said: “While we respect the experiences of these individuals two things come to mind.

☆ Millennials and Gen Z want to stop a climate catastrophe. But first they have to get elected.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +24 min

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, told young climate activists in 2019, "You didn't vote for me." AP Photo/Gemunu AmarasingheBut most policy debates aren't genuinely existential in the way climate change is. "Younger Democrats tend to have a much more friendly relationship and response to the party's activist class than older Democrats do." Fossil-fuel interests have played a central role in stymieing progress on climate change for decades. Nearly a decade later, Trump ran for and won the presidency — with Gingrich's early and staunch support — while calling climate change a "hoax."

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