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 Representative 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 and attacked journalists, including Yamiche Alcindor and Rachel Scott. He’s also attacked and denigrated Black women elected officials, including Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and New York Attorney Letitia James.
Bigger Than Hurt Feelings
High-profile attacks on Black women are not limited to politics.
Acclaimed journalists Cari Champion and Jemele Hill have long recounted their own experiences with racism and sexism, including on their own show. Recently, the duo sat down with Stephen A. Smith for their Flagrant and Funny podcast and asked him 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. They wanted to know why, with everything going on in the world, his commentary goes harder on Black women.
The attacks on Black women are emblematic of a nation that not only despises Black bodies but is out of sync with the challenges Black women face in particular.
Champion and Hill received a deluge of hateful comments in response — 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 globally show up in Black women’s paychecks, as well as our jobs, our hospitals, and our children’s classrooms. The numbers are the receipts.
This is bigger than hurt feelings. The attacks on Black women are emblematic of a nation that not only despises Black bodies, but is out of sync with the challenges Black women face in particular.
That’s why works like the forthcoming “The Black Papers” matter.
The project documents the attacks on Black women, putting the receipts and proposed responses in one place. The data doesn’t lie. In virtually all indicators and indices, Black women face a steep road that is littered with challenges.
By the Numbers
Consider jobs, for example: unemployment among Black women jumped from 5.9% to 7.3% in September 2026 alone while the unemployment rate for white women, Hispanic, and Asian workers fell. Additionally, Black women lost more than 30% of their federal jobs in 2025 compared to the 11.6% of non-Black women who lost federal jobs.
The data matters for many reasons, including that public service was a ladder into the middle class for Black families, including Black women. 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.
Even outside government, Black women lost professional and service jobs at three times the rate of all women 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.
Reduced earnings are particularly harmful as Black women carry the highest average student loan balances of any group. They earn less than white women, white men, and Black men despite having the same level of education, but are saddled with more debt.
For every dollar a white man earns, a Black woman earns 65 cents, resulting in more than $1 million lost over a career. This hurts as Black women are more likely to be heads of households.
The pain is deeper than money. When it comes to health, in 2024, Black women are more than three times more likely to die during childbirth than white women. In school, Black girls are suspended at 5 times the rate of white girls, starting in preschool.
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
Fortunately, The Black Papers outlines several solutions. Congress should pass the Momnibus, a wide-ranging bill that addresses the maternal mortality crisis, and the PRO Act, which would strengthen unions. Lawmakers must extend postpartum Medicaid leave to 12 months, and healthcare companies should pay for birth doulas. Schools must end zero-tolerance discipline in public schools, and philanthropies must fund Black women-led organizations.
For instance, eight chapters in The Black Pages speak directly to Black women.
Chapter 10, “Confronting the Black Health Equity Crisis,” was written by Britt Weinstock, Linda Elam, and Dr. David Johns. Chapter 11 was penned by the National Women’s Law Center and focuses on reproductive justice at the crossroads; Ashley Brevil wrote Chapter 12, which focuses on Black Mothers and ending disparities in maternal health; and Chapter 13 focuses on gender equity and was written by Dr. Brittney Cooper, Shatema Threadcraft, Susana Morris and Melanye Price.
The remedy exists and our policy proposals work. 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, the CEO and Executive Director of the National Black Justice Collective, and the editor-in-chief of The Black Papers: A Policy Agenda for Black Liberation in the 21st Century (Routledge, 2026). He served as the first Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans and hosts the podcast Teach the Babies.
