In Massachusetts, men and boys are falling behind, new report shows
The staggering data is highlighted in a
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'I'm concerned that in recent years as some of these data points have gotten more and more troubling, people in blue states like Mass. have have been too cautious to engage in the discussion,' said Luc Schuster, one of the authors of the report and the executive director of Boston Indicators.
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'Men are half the population, and if we don't engage in these issues in a thoughtful way, other more reactionary voices will step in and dominate discussion,' he added.
While the authors of the report are quick to point out that the
Take education for instance. Across the state, male high school students perform worse academically than female students: They're completing fewer advanced courses, graduating at lower rates, and are less likely to enroll in college.
Employment without a bachelor's degree has become more challenging over the years, too, the report finds. In 1983, 87 percent of men between the ages of 25 and 54
were employed.
That number fell to 78 percent in 2023.
Why they're not employed is also distinct. Among women, 49 percent say they are taking care of their family or home. Compare that to unemployed men, 48 percent of whom state they are ill or disabled.
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Men of color are especially impacted. In the state, white men's full-time median earnings in 2023 were at $1,659 a week. Black men's earnings however dropped to $1,098, and Latino men's earnings were the lowest at $929.
Jobs that have traditionally been held by men such as manufacturing, retail, and wholesale trade, also saw declines in the last decade, while industries
such as health care and education — ones typically associated with women — have grown.
'In the Boston area, our kind of bread and butter is health and education,' said Branden Miles, the policy and research manager for the Mayor's Office of Black Male Advancement. The office, which was
Men 'who may not have had the training or the ability to access higher education are struggling' to break into these fields, Miles said.
Part of the challenge for Black boys and men, he said, is
battling stereotype threat, a psychological impact
in which
marginalized groups struggle to fight back against negative narratives about their identity, leading to stress and anxiety.
Black men and boys are sometimes seen as 'challenging, a threat, or intimidating,' he said, and that's why the office tries to approach their work with an asset-based approach, focusing on the talents of Black boys and men.
The ability for men to provide for themselves and their family has consequences, said Richard Reeves, one of the authors of the study and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
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'You don't freeze the wages of particular group in society and not pay the price,' he said.
Reeves also points to initiatives to get more women into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, but fewer efforts to get men into fields such as health, education, administration, and literacy.
Workforce training and other targeted policies could address this gap to get more men into higher-paying fields such as nursing, that also face a national
Ultimately, the goal is to get 'break out of zero sum thinking' Reeves said, and 'to show that it is possible to draw responsible attention from the boys and men without in any way taking away from the necessary ongoing effort on behalf of women and girls.'
This story was produced by the Globe's
team, which covers the racial wealth gap in Greater Boston. You can sign up for the newsletter
.
Esmy Jimenez can be reached at
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The Hill
14 minutes ago
- The Hill
The plot to destroy Black political power
Get ready for the rage: The conservative majority on the Supreme Court looks likely to gut the last remaining parts of the Voting Rights Act. Prompted by a Black conservative, Justice Clarence Thomas, the high court will consider in October a question that answers itself — whether it is wrong to stop openly racist tactics in drawing congressional districts. Even if the right-wing justices manage to close their eyes to the racial politics involved, they will feel the heat and hear the explosive impact of the backlash to a one-sided ruling. The fuse will be lit in several Republican-controlled states, largely in the South, as white politicians begin diluting votes in Black-majority districts to silence Black voices in Congress. Deep-red state legislatures — think of South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi — will be free to demolish their Black-majority congressional districts. Those white-majority, Trump-backing state legislatures aim to bring an end to the careers of several Black Democrats in Congress, such as Reps. Cleo Fields (D-La.), Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) and Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). As a purely political exercise, Trump and his Republican allies have wanted to eliminate these districts for years, because Black voters are key to the Democratic Party's congressional strength. The Voting Rights Act allows for federal courts to look for racial damage done by gerrymandering districts. In the case now before the high court, involving redistricting in Louisiana, the state was forced to add a second Black-majority district. A federal court ruled that, with 33 percent of the state being Black, it was wrong for only one of its six congressional districts to be majority Black. But that led to a lawsuit over the new map. Along the lines of Thomas's recent call for a total end to the Voting Rights Act, the challengers contend that the law — which was created to protect equal voting rights for Black Americans — now prohibits the court from stopping white Republicans from playing politics and crushing Black power as a proportional representation of a state's racial makeup. Thomas makes the case that attention to 'race-based' construction of congressional districts is out of touch with recent history. He argues that 'specific identified instances' of racial bias, including violent voter suppression, are now distant and amount to relics of the nation's past. Last week, a federal appeals court disagreed. The Fifth Circuit ruled that Louisiana's congressional district map 'packed' and 'cracked' Black populations to limit their political power. The ruling stated there are 'decades of binding precedent' under the 15th Amendment allowing Congress to contest racial bias in redistricting. The 1965 Voting Rights Act was written in response to the nation's long history of keeping political power in white hands. Even after Black men gained the right to vote, it was common for that vote to be suppressed through violence. For perspective, South Carolina is 26 percent Black and 67 percent white. But white-majority Republican congressional districts are 86 percent of South Carolina's seven congressional districts. Only one of seven districts has a majority of Democrats and Black voters — Clyburn's district. The Supreme Court plans to hear arguments on racial redistricting on Oct. 15 — early enough for a decision that could affect the 2026 midterms. If the Black vote is diluted, the Democratic Party's ability to win seats in Congress shrinks, increasing Republican chances of retaining majorities in the House and Senate in 2026. That would keep Trump from becoming a lame duck facing a divided Congress. The Republicans' goal is to maintain majorities in Congress for Trump's last two years in the White House. Then Republicans can appoint more judges to issue more rulings that further weaken Democrats. The downward spiral for Black political power will go on and on. Trump is not hiding his interest in the outcome of gerrymandering efforts in Texas. 'We have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats,' Trump told CNBC earlier this month. 'We have a really good governor, and we have good people in Texas. I got the highest vote in the history of Texas … and we are entitled to five more seats.' Excuse me, Mr. President? Neither you nor the Republican Party is entitled to any seats. Those seats belong to Americans of all colors and parties. Texas Republicans' threats to send law enforcement to forcibly return Texas Democratic legislators to the state capitol to provide a quorum for passing gerrymandered maps are a sideshow. They distract from the real effect that racially-designed gerrymandering can have on race relations and politics for decades to come. Comedian Dave Chappelle famously called Trump 'an honest liar.' In the fight over Texas redistricting, the 'honest liar' is saying that the people looking at redistricting's racial impact are themselves racist. Don't let Trump or his partisans on the high court fool you. Racial justice in Congress is at stake. Democrats will have to fight fire with fire to prevent Trump from diminishing Black voting power. Democrats owe that much to Black voters, who have carried them to electoral victories over the last 60 years. They owe it to the memory of the brave people who marched, were beaten and even died to demand voting rights only 60 years ago.
Boston Globe
4 hours ago
- Boston Globe
‘There is real damage being done': Rising Black unemployment could signal deeper economic woes
Advertisement As tariffs and mass deportations start to soften the economy, Black and Latino workers are vulnerable because they have lower rates of educational attainment and higher shares of low-wage and temporary jobs that are often the first to go, economists note. Black workers make up a Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said Black and Latino unemployment hit then-record lows during President Trump's first term — though the Latino rate dropped to this level again, and the Black rate went lower, when President Biden was in office, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Rising Black unemployment is a result of the immigration surge during the Biden administration, she said. Advertisement 'Deportation efforts have opened up jobs previously held by illegal immigrants, and American-born workers have accounted for all job gains since the president took office in January,' she said in a statement Thursday. 'President Trump is implementing the same America First economic agenda that delivered historic job and wage growth in his first term.' Massachusetts has typically weathered economic downturns better than the country as a whole because its large education, health care, and life sciences industries have remained strong, said Mark Melnik, director of economic and policy research at the UMass Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. But stagnant labor force growth in recent years and the pullback of federal grants have put the state in a more vulnerable position. 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Nearly Advertisement Since 'They can't not work,' Roy said, 'and our economy can't afford to lose them.' At the Department of Education, Black employees made up Webb-Prather, a lawyer and self-described 'cornerstone' of her family, had moved back to her impoverished hometown of East Cleveland last fall for the federal job — and to help take care of relatives with medical problems. She lives with her mother in a house riddled with leaks and mold and recently picked up a pizza to feed a group of neighborhood children who told her they'd only had cereal to eat that day. Webb-Prather, 36, is still being paid, but she doesn't know for how long. 'This money ain't just for me,' said Webb-Prather, who is Black. 'I'm feeding my family and I'm feeding the family ... across the street.' The backlash against DEI, which began before Trump was reelected and has been greatly exacerbated by his policies, is also having an impact, said Su Joun, principal of the Diversity@Workplace Consulting Group in Burlington. Professionals of color, who often reach out to her for career guidance, are being laid off at a higher rate than in the past, she said, which may be due to organizations paying less attention to their workforce demographics. Advertisement According to a July survey of 965 business leaders by the job website 'The desire to have good diversity numbers, maybe that pressure is eliminated,' Joun said. 'Without intervention, inequitable networks and bias often leave people of color out of the job market.' Leaders of color who were hired or promoted in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder in 2020 also haven't been around long enough to generate enough widespread support, or 'stickiness,' within the organization to save their jobs, Joun said, and may also be vulnerable to being replaced. Nonprofits, many of which employ as well as support people of color, are being hit by federal funding cutbacks, which could reduce opportunities on both fronts for Black and Latino workers. Even companies that aren't abandoning their DEI efforts are trying to understand how the steady stream of changes could affect them, which slows down the process of creating more equitable workforces, said Pratt Wiley, president of The Partnership, a Boston organization dedicated to developing professionals of color. 'There is real damage being done,' he said. 'This moment may pass, but it may be incredibly painful and have a lasting effect.' This story was produced by the Globe's team, which covers the racial wealth gap in Greater Boston. You can sign up for the newsletter . Advertisement Katie Johnston can be reached at
Vox
5 hours ago
- Vox
The electoral arms race between Texas and California, explained
is a correspondent at Vox, where he covers the Democratic Party. He joined Vox in 2022 after reporting on national and international politics for the Atlantic's politics, global, and ideas teams, including the role of Latino voters in the 2020 election. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has threatened to retaliate at Texas by forcing a state referendum or legislation to redraw districts to give Democrats a five- to seven-seat boost in Congress.A new kind of political battle is emerging between America's parties — one centered on the composition of Congress and congressional redistricting. This process usually occurs every decade, after the US Census finishes its work and releases new demographic information that states use to reconfigure how the 435 seats in the House of Representatives are divided among the 50 states. But this summer, Texas Republicans are scrambling those norms. Republican lawmakers are trying to pass a new proposal for the GOP-controlled legislature to redraw their congressional maps in the middle of the decade to give the national party an advantage in the 2026 midterm elections. That vote in the legislature would have happened Monday — but state Democratic lawmakers have decided to leave the state. It's a procedural effort to deny a quorum in the state House and delay a vote on the new map — though it's unclear how long it can last. Still, the attempt to redraw congressional districts in the middle of the decade is a blatant power play — jump-started by President Donald Trump's desire to offset potential losses next year and win a bigger Republican majority in the House for the second half of his term. At the moment, it looks likely that Republicans might lose some ground in Congress, as has been the trend for presidents' parties for the last 70 years. The Logoff The email you need to stay informed about Trump — without letting the news take over your life. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. This mid-decade redistricting effort is not the first time Texas Republicans have aggressively gerrymandered seats to boost their party's representation in Congress, but it is abnormal for redistricting to happen this early, or as a direct response to a president's wishes to gain an electoral advantage. And it doesn't seem like Texas will be the only Republican-controlled state to try this. This sudden gamesmanship is forcing national and state-level Democrats to consider their own tit-for-tat, mid-decade redistricting efforts — and to confront a harsh reality. Many Democrats lack the political will to bend norms in response to these Republican efforts. And those who do will face steep legal and political obstacles, including from their own party. Still, that isn't stopping some Democratic leaders from responding. Their leading voice is California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has declared that he will redraw his state's maps to boost Democrats if Texas Republicans move forward with their plan. Govs. Kathy Hochul of New York, Phil Murphy of New Jersey, and JB Pritzker of Illinois have also said they are considering their own responses. How Republicans are pressing their advantage Republicans have the upper hand on redistricting. In the majority of states across the country, state legislatures have the primary control and power to draw district lines. That includes the three states where Republicans have signaled they will try to redraw maps before the 2026 midterms — Texas, Ohio, and Missouri — all in which the GOP has unified control of the legislature and the governor's office. Through redistricting these states alone, Republicans would be able to gain enough seats to secure a majority after the midterm elections. The current plan in Texas would gain them five seats, while additional redraws could give Republicans anywhere from one to three more seats in Ohio, and one seat in Missouri. Republicans currently have a three-seat majority in the House, as a result of resignations and deaths, which shrinks to a two-seat majority if all those vacancies are filled. And there are still more Republican-run states that could be tapped. As Punchbowl News reported last month, five Democratic-held seats could be threatened in Florida if Gov. Ron DeSantis agrees to a mid-decade redraw. And New Hampshire's governor, Kelly Ayotte, could still be convinced by the White House to consider state Republicans' past plans to create another Republican-friendly seat in the state. Other Republican-leaning states — like Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, and Nebraska — are limited from redrawing maps before 2026 by Democratic governors, more moderate Republican legislators and state courts, or the fact that their legislatures aren't in session. Democrats in the three states that will likely create new GOP seats have few options to resist or block redraws. In Texas, Democrats have resorted to boycotting legislative sessions and preventing the legislature from voting by leaving the state. On Sunday, more than 50 lawmakers fled to Illinois and New York to deny the two-thirds threshold required for the Texas House to meet. Republicans had been trying to force them to participate by delaying a vote on flood disaster relief and recovery funding until after their redistricting effort passes, but state Democrats eventually decided to go ahead with this delay. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has since issued an ultimatum: He will try to have the Democrats who left the state removed from office through an untested legal process, and fill their seats if they don't return by the start of the session Monday. These lawmakers would also be fined $500 for every day they miss a vote. Democrats in Ohio and Missouri have no similar leverage. That leaves out-of-state Democrats as the next line of defense. But they face obstacles there. Democrats are limited by their own advocacy Democrats hoping to strike back have many fewer options. They're limited by the number of states they control, the way those states handle redistricting, and the political will of legislators who view this kind of redistricting as beyond the pale. Democrats have unified control in 15 states, out of which they could probably only gain seats in about nine states: California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington. But politicians trying to redraw districts in any of these states will face steep hurdles. In California, Colorado, New York, New Jersey, and Washington, independent or bipartisan commissions have the power to draw congressional maps, not state legislatures. Those commissions were set up after years of bipartisan advocacy for fair representation and liberal activism for better government accountability and transparency. They are enshrined by state law or were set up by state ballot measures, and would require constitutional amendments, a statewide referendum, or court challenges to return redistricting power to the state legislature. That includes California — the state with the largest population — where the Texas Tribune is reporting that Newsom plans to present the state legislature a new congressional map that flips five Republican-held seats to cancel out Texas's boost. After the Democratic-dominated legislature approves that plan, it would theoretically be put up as a statewide referendum for voter approval, though Newsom has said that he believes the legislature can pass these changes by itself. Still, Newsom hasn't publicly confirmed these plans, and he faces bipartisan opposition to his idea. Other states essentially have prohibitions on mid-decade or early redistricting efforts, Dan Vicuña, a redistricting expert at the government accountability organization Common Cause, told me. The state constitutions of Washington and New Jersey, Vicuña said, contain provisions that limit redistricting to the year immediately following the census and limit intervention before that time. That leaves Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, and Oregon as the Democratic states where early redistricting could likely be accomplished with fewer obstacles. Already, some Maryland Democrats are signaling they would try to squeeze one more Democratic seat by redrawing their district lines. National Democrats have said they'll try to gain a seat in Minnesota, though they'll have to wait until state Democrats regain their majority in the Senate, where a Democratic lawmaker resigned this week, tying the chamber. Democrats may have no choice but to try redistricting For as much bluster as Democrats are making about trying to retaliate, Republicans are actually taking the steps to do early redistricting. Congressional Democrats, for now, are trying to build support among governors and state lawmakers to engage in this political back-and-forth. According to CNN, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his advisers are exploring legal ways to redraw maps in California, New Jersey, New York, Minnesota, and Washington, but those details have yet to be made public. Some Texas state Democrats, meanwhile, traveled to California and Illinois last week to discuss GOP redistricting with the Democratic governors there. But to stay in the game, Democrats may have to abandon their own rules. The Trump-era GOP has shown its willingness to push the bounds of political norms and bend institutions. There are valid, long-term concerns about what this kind of ad-hoc redistricting will mean for elections and trust in government in the future — what Vicuña described as a 'race to the bottom' — but Democrats, at least in Congress, are accepting that playing fair, or by old norms, isn't enough. Update, August 4, 10:30 am ET: This article was originally published on July 23 and has been updated multiple times with news about California's potential plans to redraw its congressional maps, Texas Democrats' quorum delay, and Gov. Greg Abbott's response.
