3 ms·

In the 1920s or so, black men were 24% self employed or had their own small business. Now it is a lot less than that. What exactly happened is up for debate but

• adamsea 8y ago
  Desegregation and no more lynchings (which was prevalent enough it was basically domestic terrorism) is sad?
• lopmotr 8y ago
  Can you show where that stat came from? 24% seems so high that it must be reflecting some major obvious phenomenon. Was there a big class of jobs that doesn't exist anymore? Were a quarter of white men self employed too? Was discrimination was so great that self-employment was a far better way to get work? Is that 24% of black men or working black men, or working-age black men? The statistic on its own leave so much confusion. Maybe self-employed meant itinerant farm laborer? It might not be so sad for that to stop existing.
• jonnybgood 8y ago
  I would believe it and I also believe the decline was due to racism. Southern racists didn’t like seeing prosperous black people. Just look at what happened to Rosewood: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre
• graeme 8y ago
  Was the small business rate more common for all ethnicities back then? Without context this stat doesn't really tell us much. Mass employment as employees is a relatively new phenomenom.
• owebmaster 8y ago
  The other 76% were unemployed or in a precarious job.