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Hello and welcome to Behind the News. My name is Doug Hinwood. Two interviews today,

one with the sociologist, Aldrin and Austin, on the fate of Black men in the job market.

And the other are some commentary from behind the news, such correspondent Susie Bright

on carriage of Levine's Peg the Patriarchy costume at last week's Met Gala. It may come

as no surprise to hear this, but Black men have a miserable time in the labor market.

They face constant discrimination and are massively damaged by brutal rates of incarceration.

Here's an illustration of the effect of incarceration on Black men. Last month their official unemployment

rate was about 9 percent, that count excludes the imprisoned. They're also excluded from

the denominator in the unemployment rate formula. The definition of the population excludes

those behind bars, as well as those otherwise institutionalized. If those are included among

the jobless and their numbers added to the population, the Black male unemployment rate

would rise to 13 percent, that is by four points. The prison effect in the numbers

for white men would be much less dramatic. A 4.5 percent unemployment rate last month

would rise to five if prisoners were included. An eighth as large as the rate of increased

for Black men. Here to outline the problem, explain as origins and lay out some solutions

as Aldrin and Austin. These sociologists who just joined the Center for Economic and

Policy Research, seeper, in Washington to run this race in economic justice program.

Aldrin and Austin, let's start with the situation of Black men in the labor market today.

How hard were Black men hit by the pandemic recession and how vigorous is the rebound then?

When the pandemic arrived, the entire economy was shut down. Lots of people were hit very

hard simultaneously and that's unusual because usually you see the disparities from the

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