Black Pensions Matter

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, while supporting a Black sanitation workers strike (Hutchinson, 2019). Most Americans probably know those sad facts because they either lived through them or studied them at school. However, most Americans probably don’t know that the sanitation workers’ demands included a “10% wage increase, fair promotion policies, sick leave, pension programs, health insurance, and payroll deduction of union dues” (Estes, 2000, p. 158). Civil Rights advocates, like Dr. King, saw pensions and the organization of Black labor as one of many ways to improve the lives of Black workers and a method to level the economic playing field (Schmitt, 2008). So, believe it or not, Black pensions matter, and have for a long time.

Jobs and civil rights. The issues haven’t changed (Library of Congress, 28th August 1963).

I don’t wade into the subject of race and pensions lightly. But, up to this point, my work on the Golden Albatross worth vs. worth it decision framework has focused solely on the issues a generic pensionable worker would need to consider. And, since I’m a White-guy, it’s reasonable to assume that my vision of that generic worker was White … and a guy.

My lack of consideration for how the Golden Albatross decision framework might need to adapt based on either sex or race seems myopic. It looks incredibly myopic when considering the global re-emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, as well as the unequal devastation caused by the COVID-19 along racial and socioeconomic lines. As a result, this article marks my first effort to correct my mistake. Continue reading →