Over the past few years, Ms. Jones has developed one central philosophy: Because black women have historically concentrated in low-paying caregiving jobs that are often excluded from employment rights and benefits like Social Security, they have accumulated less wealth and experienced worse health consequences. In addition, Ms. Jones argues that helping black women — through measures such as raising wages in the care professions and eliminating more student debt — is the best way to build an economy that works better for everyone.

In 2020, she titled her narrative “Black Women Best”. She figured it out while working for a progressive nonprofit called the Groundwork Collaborative, which led groups around the country focused on finding a story about how the economy should work for working people.

“They were like, ‘I wish I wasn’t tired,'” Ms. Jones recalled of the participants. “‘I want to buy school supplies.’ “I want to know that if my car breaks down, because I think it might, I’m not going to lose my apartment.” Solving these basic problems for people with the fewest resources, she says, would strengthen the job market from the bottom up. up.

Her premise, which was formulated by Ms working paper for the Roosevelt Institute, a left-leaning think tank, found an eager audience under President Biden, who he owed his victory largely to black women. She was embraced by influential personalities, incl corporate economists aa president of the Federal Reserve Systemand formed the basis of the 133-page message commissioned by the Congressional Committee on Black Women and Girls.

There has been backlash: Some scholars, including Tommy J. Curry of the University of Edinburgh, argue that black men are more disadvantaged than black women. Dr. Curryprofessor specializing in African philosophy and A study of the black man he said at the university that while he understood the “political popularity” of Ms Jones’ theory, the evidence did not support it. Black women, he said, “since 2000 have experienced higher rates of labor force participation, entrepreneurial efforts supported by government grants, and higher rates of college degree attainment, while black men have been shown to have higher unemployment, lower earnings per dollar — at 51 cents, according to of some measures – and overall downward mobility.”