The world has zero love, affection or appreciation for Black women. This is true broadly, and it’s certainly true in the United States.
Recently, Laura Loomer went on a racist tirade against Florida state Rep. and U.S. Senate candidate Angie Nixon. Loomer was rattled because Nixon had the audacity to be Black and run for office. This attack isn’t an aberration.
It follows the routine and systematic criticism of Black women by the occupant of the Oval Office, who has regularly berated journalists, including Yamiche Alcindor and Rachel Scott. He’s also attacked Black women elected officials, including Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
More than hurt feelings
High-profile attacks on Black women are not limited to politics.
Journalists Cari Champion and Jemele Hill recently sat down with Stephen A. Smith for their “Flagrant and Funny” podcast and asked why he is harder on Black women commentators than his White former colleagues.
They pressed him on trashing Kamala Harris after the 2024 election and running to Sean Hannity to protect himself after the National Association of Black Journalists called him out.
Champion and Hill received a deluge of hateful comments — so many they shut down their comment sections. But let’s be clear: this is bigger than one man’s commentary.
The challenges Black women face show up in our paychecks, our jobs, our hospitals and our children’s classrooms. The numbers are the receipts.
The attacks are emblematic of a nation that not only despises Black bodies but is out of sync with the challenges Black women face.
That’s why “The Black Papers” matters. The project documents the attacks, putting the receipts and proposed responses in one place.
By the numbers
Unemployment among Black women jumped from 5.9% in August to 7.3% in September 2026, while unemployment rates for White, Hispanic and Asian workers fell. Black women’s federal employment fell by more than 30% in 2025, compared with an 11.6% decline among women overall.
Public service was a ladder into the middle class for Black families. That ladder is being demolished, and the private sector is following suit.
The losses are not about qualifications or effort. They’re part of a broader attack on Black America, with Black women as a proxy.
In professional and service occupations, Black women lost jobs at more than three times the rate of women overall in 2025. Black women have long been told to work twice as hard to be considered half as good. Black women did what the country told them to do. They got the degree. They pay more for it and are paid less for it.
Black women working full time, year-round typically earn 65 cents for every dollar earned by White, non-Hispanic men. At that gap, the lost earnings exceed $1 million over a 40-year career.
The pain is deeper than money. In 2024, Black women were more than three times as likely as White women to die from pregnancy-related causes during pregnancy or within 42 days afterward. A federal report that year found that Black girls received out-of-school suspensions at more than five times the rate of White girls.
As we note in “The Black Papers,” “Talking about gender inside our own house is precision, not division.” Naming what is happening to Black women does not divide us. It is how we win.
Pushing back
“The Black Papers” outlines several solutions. Congress should pass the Momnibus, a package of bills addressing the maternal mortality crisis, and the PRO Act, which would strengthen unions. Lawmakers must protect 12-month postpartum Medicaid coverage and ensure it is available nationwide. Health insurers should pay for birth doulas. Public schools must end zero-tolerance discipline policies, and philanthropies must fund Black women-led organizations.
Eight chapters speak directly to Black women. Among them: Chapter 10, on health equity, by Britt Weinstock, Linda Elam and Dr. David Johns; Chapter 11, on reproductive justice, by the National Women’s Law Center; Chapter 12, on Black mothers and maternal health disparities, by Ashley Brevil; and Chapter 13, on gender equity, by Dr. Brittney Cooper, Shatema Threadcraft, Susana Morris and Melanye Price.
The remedies exist. What is missing is the will to fund them. If policymakers choose to invest in help rather than harm, we’ve combined the fixes into one accessible, easy-to-digest tome.
The question is: Will they engage with them?
Dr. David J. Johns is a sociologist, leader of the National Black Justice Collective and editor-in-chief of “The Black Papers.” This commentary was distributed by Word In Black.