Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice (ISGRJ) Book Talk
The Black body was brought to America to labor. We cannot imagine a just racial future without reckoning with how race continues to shape work and wellbeing.
I could not have asked for a better way to launch this book! The talk picks up on thread in the book about the impact of inequality at work on health and I connected it back to ISGRJ Black Bodies, Black Health: Imagining a Just Racial Future project with the funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. You can watch the talk on their YouTube now.
As the structural realities in the US labor market and economy continue to shift, Americans’ commitment to meritocracy means they are working harder and harder to stay afloat. The promise of the American dream is that hard work not only leads to opportunity, but also security. Yet as insecurity rises and workers hold tight to the cultural mythology pushing themselves to work harder, it is fueling an invisible, but highly consequential form of insecurity. As Black Americans cling to the assurances of the American dream, and grapple with the host of impediments to achieving it, they are literally dying in the process. There is no structural accountability in the dream, just individual responsibility to work for it.
As economic vulnerability defines our new normal, perhaps we can now realize the critical role of social supports for Americans going through tough times and find the political will to make the invisible policy choices that create structures of opportunity. This is necessary not just in a profound and disruptive crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, but in the ordinary and now routine labor force disruptions that characterize modern work in America. For as long as individuals are chasing job security, hustling to demonstrate deservingness, and internalizing failure, the broad coalition needed to push for change and sustain it cannot be formed. Instead, Black and White Americans will chase the elusive American dream while bemoaning the fact that it is not working for them. The reality is this—unless we redefine the American dream inclusively, creating the means to enable true economic freedom—not just aspirational opportunity, but the means to achieve it—we will not live up to the ideal, the promise, or the possibility of America.
Thanks especially to my amazing team who came dressed in black and white to show their support. I am so fortunate to work with absolutely amazing people!
