Black economic conditions constitute a depression, not mere recession spillover

Evidence

But in black America, the reality was even bleaker. I mean this beyond the familiar platitude that says “whenever white America has a cold, black America has the flu.” The reality is that by every relevant statistical measure (employment, wages, wealth, etc.) black America has experienced and is experiencing a depression. This is more like the symptoms of a national congenital disease than the flu. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 46

Categorization

• DEFINE: Marks the key rhetorical move: naming the black experience a ‘depression’ and a ‘national congenital disease’ rather than a cyclical downturn — this is how Glaude frames structural rather than contingent racial harm.