Yellen argues US economy ‘never worked fairly for black Americans’

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a speech Monday marking Martin Luther King Jr. that the US economy “has never worked fairly for black Americans – or indeed for any American of color”. Related press.

Referring to the part of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech that “America has defaulted on this ballot as far as her citizens of color are concerned,” Yellen said King “knew that it was is more of a metaphor than a metaphor.” King “knew that economic injustice was bound by the greater injustice he fought against,” she continued. “From Reconstruction, to Jim Crow, to this day, our economy has never worked fairly” for people of color.

“There is still a lot of work that the Treasury needs to do to narrow the racial divide between rich and poor,” she said, though she said the Biden administration’s economic policies, such as the Rescue America Plan, is to improve equity.

Yellen’s speech was one of the King’s 93rd birthday speeches. Members of the King family marched to campaign for suffrage legislation, writing washington articles, and King’s niece Yolanda Renee King urged people: “instead of idolizing my grandfather… do something to help the community”, per NBC News.

President Biden, meanwhile, echoed the sentiments of both King Yolanda and Yellen, speech “It’s not just enough to praise [King]: We must commit to his unfinished work, to deliver work and justice, to protect sacred suffrage. “