ON THE DIGNITY & VALUE OF BLACK WORK

(This piece was originally published on September 4, 2019)

Exactly one year ago today, actor Geoffrey Owens (who played Elvin on The Cosby Show) was making global headlines after being spotted bagging groceries at a Trader Joe's in New Jersey. Coverage that was initially meant to mock him quickly turned into an avalanche of support and a national conversation about how we value low-wage work. As Owens put it in a Good Morning America interview about the situation, "[I hope] we start honoring the dignity of work and the dignity of the working person."

Much too often, we as a society devalue and degrade the labor of so-called "unskilled" workers. And when those workers do get any acknowledgment, it is focused primarily on the experiences of the "White working class"––the coal miners, steel workers, and car factory employees who are often used as avatars of hardworking "real Americans" by politicians and mainstream media.

But despite recent data showing that Black workers make up 13.7 percent of the American working class while being only 11.9 percent of U.S. adults, Black workers are consistently an afterthought in both policy discussions and our national imagination. My working thesis on why: our society does not value Black labor as actual "work" due to the legacy of slavery. 

Bear with me here. In his seminal book Black Labor, White Wealth, Dr. Claud Anderson lays out how Black labor has been the foundation and driving force of the U.S. economy since slavery. More recently, the 1619 Project from The New York Times comprehensively breaks down how enslaved Africans were literal currency: beyond being bought, sold, and traded, they were even used as leverage for bank mortgages and as a form of securities for investors. 

Pause and reflect on that. In the same way that you would leverage an asset like your house today for a mortgage (i.e. if I don't pay back this loan, the bank can take my house), slave owners were leveraging Black people––actual humans––to get more capital from banks. Similar to how you can buy U.S. Treasury bonds today, investors back then made money off of slave-backed bonds.

So with a foundational legacy like this––unpaid labor by Blacks used as tools of wealth building for Whites––one can see how the merit of Black work is often valued only to the extent that it enriches those at the top of the societal power structure. And in our capitalistic society, it's easy for all of us to internalize negative beliefs about which types of work are valuable and which are not. These beliefs lead to the disregard, disrespect, and even endangerment of working class people––especially those who are Black or Brown. But I believe that there is dignity in all work, and that it's time that we not only acknowledge, but celebrate the invaluable contributions of Black workers to our economy.

Black excellence is not just degrees, corporate jobs, and passport stamps. It can be found in the fast food worker who prepares your complicated order just right; the bus driver who gets you to your destination safely; the retail associate who helps you find that perfect outfit; and the nursing aide who cares for your ill or elderly loved ones. 

So as we reflect on this past Labor Day weekend and enjoy this four-day week, let's also start valuing all work and honoring the dignity of Black workers.