For a number of years, we have been working on what I call "four wall diversity," serving our clients and publishing research. But we thought that now was a unique moment for us to go beyond four corporate walls of America, which is truly important, right? Recruiting and promoting diverse individuals is a major part of the racial justice system, but corporations in the private sector play roles far beyond their company's four walls. And this piece is meant to set the stage for what we can do to really change the situation for the Black Americans. Main suppliers
What we tried to understand in this research is the black experience, and through the different social roles we play, we looked at the Black experience. We chose five of them. We chose five. Black Americans, for example, are workers. The Americans of Black are consumers. Black Americans are businessmen. And in each of those roles we really tried to understand what it's like to be Black.
Many things were surprising about this research, but I will give an example about the role of the worker. We found a wage gap between Black workers and White workers of more than $200 billion. This is both underrepresented in different jobs and paid less for the same job. This is a huge opportunity.
What was surprising is that 60% of the wage gap was in just 20 jobs, so less than 5% of jobs made up 60% of the salary gap, and that is what Black lawyers, Black doctors and Black teachers are. We need more people in those professions not only to close the wage gap but that has downstream implications for those who also use the services for Black lawyers, Black Teachers and Black Doctors. And so we were excited about the concentration level and that it gives us a clear starting point for dealing with these issues.
One is that the Black consumer doesn't neglect it. While we have problems with income, we have to continue to increase black Americans' incomes so that they can participate more fully, even today at current levels of revenue, black Americans spend almost $850 billion annually in all their ordinary categories of consumption. This is a tremendous chance.
What we have also found through some research and discussions with Black consumers is that they are less satisfied on average. They are less happy with the products and services offered in numerous categories today, which offers companies the opportunity to customize and learn about Black customers in a way that creates a win-win situation.
In addition, private sector leaders have a huge opportunity to support Black business and Black businesses. Only 2% of employer companies in today's world are black, and there is every sort of latent entrepreneurial energy in the Black community that companies can foster and develop in a way that creates more domestic suppliers and a more dynamic business environment here in the US through supplier diversity programmes, direct loans, whether you're a financial institution or another fund. This is an enormous opportunity for the private sector.
MR. ROLLEY: These are some important steps that can be taken by the private sector, but on the public side I'm also curious. What do policymakers and civil society take?
MR. STEWART: Politicians and the government, be it the federal government, state and local authorities, play a major role in facilitating citizens' economic mobility and affect nearly every aspect of our lives.
Let me give two examples which I think have recently been highlighted by the pandemic. The first is medical care. The public sector plays an enormous role in the design and implementation of policies and actions which help to expand the access of poor people, in particular, to affordable healthcare which is disproportionately present in the bucket today by Black Americans.
Looking at the mortality levels, even before COVID-19, the Black American average lives 3.5 years less than the white American average. Now, somebody may say, "Oh, three and a half years." Let me measure this. If the gap were closed, 2 million Black Americans would still be alive. This is an awesome figure.
Secondly, there is education. The design and implementation of the policies and the way we finance schools only exacerbates and maintains the disparity. If you look at black school districts with high concentrations, 75% more, and compare them to white school districts with a high concentration, 75% or more, you find a funding flow of $1,800 per pupil in black schools. These are the choices we have made, and we can choose another route. We can choose to invest in another way and create a stronger and more inclusive economy.
MR. ROLLEY: Shelley, I want you to be grateful for your time. I know time is limited, but I think that what has been highlighted in this important document is just so important.
I'll turn it back to the Washington Post now.
MR. CAPEHART: I'm Jonathan Capehart, the Washington Post opinion writer, if you're just joining us. Welcome back to Washington Post Live and Part Two of our Race in America discussion. Welcome back to Washington Post
We just heard Cecilia Rouse from the public sector. Joining me now from a private sector perspective on how to reduce our country's racial wealth gap, John W. Rogers Jr., President and Co-Chairperson of Ariel Investments.
John, good to see you, and welcome back to the Post Live in Washington.
MR. ROGERS: Wonderful to be back.
MR. ROGERS: Well, two weeks ago, I, together with my daughter Victoria, had the opportunity to go to Tulsa and to be part of every recognition of what happened during the Tulsa Race Massacre. Our relationship with the family was direct. My grandparent was J.B. Stradford. He owned the Stradford Hotel, which was probably the country's largest Black hotel. It was a tremendous success. There was a cabaret and bars and a swimming pool. It was a true celebration in Tulsa, where his hotel was all about.
Simultaneously, my grandfather, J.B. Stradford was a very outspoken civic leader, a real Black community leader and someone who was open about civil law and economic justice, so when race disturbances happened and race massacres took place, he was eventually charged and accused of helping to trigger the uprisings, something that was obviously completely false and completely untrue, but which forced him to escape undercover. He reached Kansas—Independence, Kansas, and met his son, C.F. Stradford, who has used his legal abilities to stop Tulsa from returning to Tulsa.
We need to get business America not only in the C-Suites, on the organization's management committees, to have us on the board of directors at more than just one place, and then agree to do business with African American businesses in every aspect of our society. Get out of this word "supplier diversity," where you tell the Black and Brown people to do supply chain work, catering and construction, which are important parts of our economy and are then leaving African Americans free to spend where the wealth and employment are created in the 21st century. If institutions fail to work with African Americans and again in areas of economy where real growth and profits exist, our wealth gap in this country will continue to grow.
Hansberry v. Lee, all of this concerned the restrictive pacts we had here in Chicago that would not allow us to own homes in certain areas of our community. As you know, the redlining and additional costs when we had a chance to purchase a home were really extremely damaging and have no impact, which does not give us the opportunity to create real wealth.
That discrimination you mentioned is far better than before, but the ramifications of 500, 60, 70, 100 or over redlining and restrictive agreements continue to plague us because we have not been able to profit from the rising housing prices.
Here in Chicago we are one of the most isolated cities in the nation and, unfortunately, our property has been mainly in parts of our city where wealth cannot be created and because there was no possibility of housing on the North Shore or in the western suburbs, where house prices rose and rose.
Many of our black wealth is lost in the real estate, but we also lose many of our black wealth by not participating fully in the economic sectors in which growth and wealth are created today, nor are we able - even our non-profits, universities, clinics and museums - to give them economic opportunities. And we have no such relationship in this country to build our economic opportunity.