Moneda Moves (74): Job headlines left Black and Latina women behind. Let's talk about it.
Alright, Moneda Moves readers. Welcome to your Friday digest, delivered. Between the relaunch of the Paycheck Protection Program, an impeachment, and the announcement of a new head of Small Business Administration appointment, it’s been a busy week in news. We’re here to break it down.
To start, we need to talk about the job loss headlines that circulated this week where several publications like CNN and The Cut reported that “women lost jobs” in December. Let’s start by tackling the biggest issue: These headlines were inaccurate by omission. 82,000 Black women and 31,000 Hispanic women lost jobs in December. Meanwhile, white men, white women, and Black men all registered job gains for the month, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And while followers on social were swift to comment on social media, including our soon-to-be Vice President…
…We need to talk about why this happened. Why the oversight of two critical and growing groups in the US economy on behalf of some news outlets? Especially after we just had a season of political headlines where we saw women of color take the lead and effect change. We should expect there to be be more awareness and care to reporting accurately on these communities.
As someone who comes from the journalism industry, I tend to think that these headlines happen because reporting on communities of color has been an oversight in certain newsrooms for quite some time. The standard of reporting on these communities explicitly hasn’t been honored industry-wide as it should. Notice that communities of color aren’t woven into everyday reporting. Notice their absence in daily reported money stories. Note that in a country where people of color are building influence and planting seeds, this narrative needs to shift.
In newsrooms, there is also a concerning lack of diversity making editorial decisions at top to spot these glaring issues.
But context matters — that’s why Moneda Moves was born. Without context, we’re not telling the full story and we’re doing our community a disservice. We have work to do, mi gente.
So let’s get to it. Here are your headlines for the week.
Con poder,
Lyanne
Headlines to put on your radar.
The US economic recovery is skipping Black and Hispanic women 🧳: I appreciate how Quartz dug into the data, reporting the top level numbers first and the findings on Black women and the Latina community in particular. While latest data showed the US unemployment rate stayed steady at 6.7% for the month of December, there were big losses happening for women of color, demonstrated with this graphic generated with BLS information. (Quartz)
USA Today’s story on the crisis at the end of last year also explored this growing issue for women of color ahead of the December number drop.
The PPP program reopens its forgivable loan program 🏦: This week, the SBA reopened the Paycheck Protection Program, with its first days dedicated to community financial institutions and the intent to reach low-income communities. Any applicants approaching the Paycheck Protection Program for the second time must have no more than 300 employees and have lost 25% in gross receipts in a quarter between 2019 and 2020. Businesses have access to $284 billion in program funds this time around. (CNBC)
Rising voices in business, fintech, entrepreneurship and beyond.
President-Elect Biden chooses Director of California's Office of the Small Business Advocate to lead SBA ✅: This announcement came in at the end of last week and it is absolutely worth a rerun. Meet Isabel Guzman, Biden’s pick to be Small Business Administrator. What exactly would this role entail?
In the Covid age, the SBA has become more important than ever for the livelihood of small businesses. Today, SBA handles nearly a trillion dollars in emergency relief money, “having issued more loans in the past nine months than it has in its entire existence before that,” per Business Insider. (Inc)
Fintech app Qoins raises $1.5M investment to improve financial wellness for users💵: Qoins is on a mission to help users save money and pay off debt. Since the app’s launch, it has helped pay off and save more than $15 million of debt for users.
Now the company, founded by Christian Zimmerman and Nate Washington, received an infusion of money that will help continue expansion. The Latino and Black-owned startup also received recognition from both the Google Black Founders Fund and Google for Startups program.
“Our goal over the next year will be to build stronger relationships with our customers to truly help them during times like these,” Zimmerman told Afrotech. (Afrotech)
And that’s a wrap for this Friday. Until next week, Moneda Moves readers!