Analysis: European Americans’ unemployment rate increased 10 basis points. Asian Americans increased 40 basis points and Latino Americans increased 20 basis points from June, respectively. African America’s unemployment rate increased by 40 basis points from June.
AFRICAN AMERICAN EMPLOYMENT REVIEW
AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN:
Unemployment Rate – 7.0%
Participation Rate – 67.9%
Employed – 9,623,000
Unemployed – 723,000
African American Men (AAM) saw a increase in their unemployment rate by 10 basis points in July. The group had a precipitous drop in their participation rate in July by 90 basis points. African American Men lost 129,000 jobs in July and saw their number of unemployed increase by 2,000.
AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN:
Unemployment Rate – 6.3%
Participation Rate – 61.1%
Employed – 10,247,000
Unemployed – 694,000
African American Women saw a increase in their unemployment rate by 50 basis points in July. The group increased their participation rate in July by 20 basis points. African American Women lost 1,000 jobs in July and saw their number of unemployed increase by 60,000.
AFRICAN AMERICAN TEENAGERS:
Unemployment Rate – 21.7%
Participation Rate – 29.2%
Employed – 614,000
Unemployed – 170,000
African American Teenagers unemployment rate increased by 250 basis points. The group saw their participation rate decreased by 80 basis points in July. African American Teenagers added 37,000 jobs in July and saw their number of unemployed also increase 15,000.
African American Men-Women Job Gap: African American Women currently have 624,000 more jobs than African American Men in July. This is an increase from 496,000 in June.
CONCLUSION: The overall economy added 73,000 jobs in July while African America lost 166,000 jobs. From CNBC, “This is a gamechanger jobs report,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “The labor market is deteriorating quickly.” The weak report, including the dramatic revisions, could provide incentive for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates when it next meets in September. Following the report, futures traders raised the odds of a cut at the meeting to 75.5%, up from 40% on Thursday, according to CME Group data.”
“When power makes truth expendable, only the brave will keep records.” — HBCU Money Editorial Board
On August 1, 2025, the United States crossed a threshold most democracies fear but few anticipate with precision the moment a nation’s statistical agency becomes a political target not for corruption, but for accuracy.
Following a weaker-than-expected jobs report with just 73,000 jobs added in July and significant downward revisions to prior months, President Donald Trump abruptly ordered the firing of Dr. Erika McEntarfer, Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The justification? The data embarrassed him. The evidence? None. The implications? Profound.
For over a century, the BLS has served as the impartial scorekeeper of the American labor market. Its reports help inform everything from Federal Reserve monetary policy to wage negotiations, business expansion decisions, and university research. Most critically, the BLS is the foundation for public trust in employment data, a cornerstone of economic legitimacy.
Trump’s dismissal of Dr. McEntarfer, who was confirmed with bipartisan support and is regarded as a rigorous labor economist, did not challenge methodology, nor did it cite misconduct. Instead, it was an overt signal: when facts contradict the leader’s narrative, the facts must go.
This act is not merely executive overreach. It is an institutional decapitation. And it represents the clearest break yet from the post-WWII consensus that government data should be nonpartisan, methodologically sound, and politically untouchable. In a global economy, this is the equivalent of a currency devaluation not of the dollar, but of America’s data credibility.
When leadership no longer trusts or permits accurate data, policy becomes reactive, erratic, and performative. Investors, entrepreneurs, and institutions rely on the BLS to signal economic direction. Without it, credit markets misfire, fiscal policy lacks direction, and monetary policy becomes unmoored. For African American-owned banks, real estate firms, and HBCU endowment managers, this degrades their ability to assess employment trends in Black communities, apply for federal workforce grants, or time bond offerings based on unemployment benchmarks. Even philanthropic giving strategies may suffer if the poverty, wage, and employment data they are based on becomes manipulated or suppressed.
America’s strength lies in its institutions, not its individuals. By removing the head of a critical statistical agency on political grounds, the White House has signaled that no institution is beyond coercion. This undermines the rule of law and places civil servants especially those in technocratic roles on notice: loyalty matters more than evidence. African American civil servants, many of whom have worked tirelessly to diversify and reform these institutions from within, may see decades of credibility erased. It’s a chilling reminder that representation within agencies means little if those agencies are subject to autocratic whim.
International investors, trade partners, and credit agencies track U.S. labor data as a proxy for global economic health. If they begin to suspect that U.S. statistics are manipulated, they may hedge their investments, slow trade, or reevaluate the reliability of U.S. fiscal metrics. In the long-term, this can impact foreign direct investment in African American economic zones, HBCU research partnerships with global firms, and even diaspora remittance flows, if currency stability is affected by market anxiety.
Perhaps most dangerously, Trump’s decision follows a long trajectory of undermining truth-based systems elections, public health, the judiciary, and now economic data. This creates a vacuum in which conspiracy becomes conventional wisdom. In such an environment, fake facts become state currency. This has severe implications for African American institutions. Much of African American advocacy whether for reparations, investment, or educational equity rests on data. If national data sources are neutered or politicized, then the burden of proof shifts unfairly onto communities already under-resourced in research infrastructure.
HBCUs, Black think tanks, and African American foundations must view this firing not as a political blip, but a doctrine in action. When truth becomes negotiable, institutions that depend on it must move from passive reliance to active defense. HBCUs with strong economics, political science, or data science departments such as Howard, Spelman, and FAMU should develop Black-centered labor and socioeconomic data initiatives. These should complement, verify, or challenge federal data when necessary.
Institutions should also create safeguards digital, legal, and procedural to document how and when data manipulation may be occurring. This includes archiving historic BLS data, creating public dashboards, and writing explanatory briefs for the community. In addition, the next generation of data scientists, economists, and statisticians trained at HBCUs must be equipped not only with technical skill but a political consciousness of how truth is weaponized. Their work should be rooted not just in method, but in mission.
There is also an urgent need for civic engagement. African American policy organizations must pressure Congress to enact legal protections that insulate agencies like BLS, Census, and the Congressional Budget Office from political interference. Civil society must create watchdog coalitions that expose attempts to politicize data or intimidate public servants. Parallel to this, an emergency data defense fund backed by foundations and Black philanthropic leaders could help institutions respond rapidly to threats against data integrity.
Dr. McEntarfer’s firing is not merely about jobs data. It is about whether America will continue to govern itself by fact or by fiat. For African Americans, who have fought centuries of data invisibility, distortion, and misuse from redlining to police profiling the stakes are especially high.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics was once seen as above politics. That era is over.
African American institutions must now assume a new role not just consumers of data, but defenders of its integrity. If truth is to survive, it will not be because it was protected by tradition, but because it was guarded by those with the most to lose from its disappearance.
You can’t have political power unless you have economic power. You can’t have economic power unless you own something. — Dr. Claud Anderson
In the quiet towns of Wilberforce, Ohio, two institutions — Central State University and Wilberforce University — have stood for generations as monuments of African American intellectual resilience and historical fortitude. Founded in eras when the very idea of African American higher education was radical, both institutions have graduated engineers, entrepreneurs, theologians, and teachers who seeded entire Black communities with knowledge and leadership. Yet, in 2025, they remain financially fragile — their endowments barely grazing the thresholds needed for robust institutional health.
Meanwhile, Governor Mike DeWine just approved $600 million in state funds — sourced from Ohio’s $4.8 billion in unclaimed assets — to support the Cleveland Browns’ new domed stadium in Brook Park, an NFL franchise owned by billionaires. The Haslam Sports Group, the Browns’ owners, is contributing an additional $1.2 billion to the project, and Cuyahoga County is expected to round out the financing with another $600 million. The stadium, estimated at $2.4 billion, is framed as a jobs and tourism engine — the typical rationale for professional sports subsidies. But beneath the surface lies a deeply racialized economic pattern: Black bodies as capital, Black institutions as afterthoughts.
Let us state this plainly — $200 million in endowment funding (split between Central State and Wilberforce University) would account for just 4.17% of the $4.8 billion in unclaimed assets Ohio plans to repurpose. Yet it would transform the future of two of America’s most storied HBCUs, whose total combined endowments likely do not reach even $20 million today.
The $200 Million That Could Rebuild Black Educational Futures
An endowment is the economic engine of institutional independence. It enables faculty hiring, scholarships, research labs, infrastructure repair, and the kind of multi-generational planning that insulates a university from the unpredictable winds of politics and philanthropy.
Central State University, Ohio’s only public HBCU, receives state support — but suffers from persistent underfunding compared to Ohio’s predominantly white public institutions.
Wilberforce University, a private HBCU affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the first college owned and operated by African Americans, has been in survival mode for decades, enduring accreditation threats and enrollment declines — largely due to chronic financial starvation.
A $100 million endowment per institution, conservatively managed with a 5% annual drawdown, would provide each HBCU with $5 million per year in perpetuity. That’s enough to:
Offer full-ride scholarships to dozens, if not hundreds, of students.
Endow faculty chairs in business, STEM, and African American studies.
Fund campus maintenance and restoration for aging facilities.
Launch centers focused on African American policy, agriculture, or entrepreneurship.
Reduce reliance on tuition and thus open doors to more low-income students.
In short, it would empower these institutions to build, not just survive.
Meanwhile, the Billionaire NFL Franchise Gets a Taxpayer Bailout
The Cleveland Browns’ new stadium is not just an economic development plan — it’s a public-funded monument to private wealth. Let us remember: The NFL is a tax-exempt cartel whose franchises are operated by billionaires and whose profits — through broadcast rights, luxury boxes, and merchandise — soar year after year.
The public rationale for subsidizing stadiums is that they will generate jobs, tourism, and long-term economic vitality. Yet, study after study from economists across ideological spectrums consistently shows that these promises are overstated or entirely unfounded. Most NFL stadiums create a short-term construction boom, followed by long-term debt and opportunity costs.
But perhaps more galling is this: the economic lifeblood of the NFL is disproportionately Black men. While roughly 13% of the U.S. population is Black, nearly 60% of NFL players are African American. These players, often trained in underfunded high schools, many from single-parent households and first-generation college trajectories, generate billions — yet the communities and institutions from which they originate remain underdeveloped and neglected.
It is a grotesque inversion: Black talent builds white wealth, while Black institutions remain marginal.
Black Athletes, White Wealth, and the Poverty of Institutional Ownership
The NFL, and by extension the Cleveland Browns, benefits from a system where the labor is Black, but the ownership is almost entirely white. Out of 32 NFL teams, only one have non-white principal owners: Shahid Khan, a Pakistani-American who owns the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Meanwhile,no HBCU alum holds equity in any major professional sports franchise, despite HBCUs being core contributors to the American athletic pipeline that fuels leagues like the NFL and NBA.
Despite producing generations of elite athletes, coaches, and sports executives, no collective of HBCU alumni has leveraged its wealth or influence to acquire equity in a major professional sports franchise, leaving the economic rewards of Black athletic labor concentrated elsewhere.
Imagine a model where Ohio had used even half of the $600 million to create a Black Education & Sports Endowment, partially controlled by a consortium of HBCUs, Black public schools, and community development organizations. The returns from that endowment could support thousands of students, community health centers, literacy programs, and STEM labs for generations.
Instead, we see yet another example of extractive economics, where African American physical, cultural, and intellectual capital is used to build empires for others, while Black institutions — including HBCUs — remain dependent on begging, philanthropy, and hope.
Why Unclaimed Funds Should Serve The Forgotten
Ohio’s decision to redirect $1.7 billion in unclaimed funds to cover state expenditures is fiscally creative — but morally questionable. These are not “free” funds. They are monies left in dormant bank accounts, uncashed checks, unclaimed insurance payouts — many of which disproportionately belong to low-income individuals who lacked the resources or knowledge to retrieve them.
Data suggests that Black Americans are disproportionately represented among unclaimed property holders — in part due to higher levels of economic displacement, address changes, and financial exclusion. Redirecting these funds to subsidize an NFL franchise, instead of redressing the institutional and educational gaps that created that unclaimed status, is a betrayal.
Ohio could have:
Created a permanent Black Higher Education Trust, benefiting Central State and Wilberforce.
Used 5% of unclaimed funds — about $240 million — to fund Black-led public health initiatives in underserved areas.
Directed even 1% of those funds — roughly $48 million — to finance land acquisition and economic development for Black-owned businesses.
Instead, we’ve chosen to rescue billionaires from spending their own money.
HBCU Endowments Are An Economic Empowerment Issue — And the Gateway to Political Power
Endowments are more than just financial assets. They are strategic tools of power — insulating institutions from political winds, enabling bold experimentation, and giving their stakeholders the leverage to influence policy, not just plead for it.
For African America, the chronic undercapitalization of HBCUs is not merely a funding gap — it is an economic power vacuum that undercuts the entire community’s ability to advocate effectively for systemic redress.
While Williams College and Bowdoin College — small liberal arts schools with fewer than 2,500 students — boast endowments of $3.7 billion and $2.58 billion respectively, many HBCUs operate with endowments under $50 million, and some under $10 million. This discrepancy is not accidental. It is the compounding result of centuries of exclusion from generational wealth accumulation, philanthropic networks, and public investment.
Until African American institutions — especially HBCUs — are armed with independent and sizable capital, they will remain vulnerable to the whims of legislatures, accreditation bodies, and philanthropic trends. Worse, they will lack the institutional might to challenge inequity in courtrooms, boardrooms, and ballot boxes.
The fight for reparations, education equity, health justice, and fair housing requires leverage — and leverage requires capital. Political power without economic power is temporary and transactional. But economic power institutionalized through endowments can translate into permanent seats at the table, not just access to it.
Endowing HBCUs, then, is not a charitable gesture. It is a foundational strategy for African American sovereignty and redress. Without institutions that are capable of outlasting election cycles and media trends, African America will continue fighting uphill with borrowed tools and limited voice.
Ohio had a chance to fund that future. Instead, it chose to subsidize a stadium — once again reminding us: until we build our own institutions, we will always be asked to cheer from the stands while others profit from our play.merican educational infrastructure for the next 100 years. Instead, he invested in a stadium with a 20-year shelf life.
Choose the Future You Fund
In 2029, a new domed stadium will open in Brook Park. It will gleam with LED lights and imported steel. It will be filled with cheering fans on Sundays and concerts on Saturdays. The Browns may even win a playoff game or two.
But just 50 miles away, on the campuses of Wilberforce and Central State, students will still walk cracked sidewalks. Professors will still work on contracts. Students will still withdraw for financial reasons.
Unless Ohio chooses to invest in the institutions that nurture and protect Black futures, those futures will continue to be harvested but never planted.
This is not just about football. It is about the future of Black Ohio. And whether our institutions will ever be allowed to rise beyond survival — and into sovereignty.
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” – Michael Jordan
America’s diversity leaving Ellis Island. (AI)
The 20th century bore witness to a dramatic shift in global power as the United States cemented its status as the world’s foremost superpower. A pivotal contributor to this ascent was the influx of foreign intellectual capital—most notably following World War II, when a cadre of German scientists, engineers, and thinkers were transplanted to American soil under Operation Paperclip. Today, history may be rhyming: a quiet but consequential outflow of talented Americans is underway, and it may herald the ascent of a new global power.
Paperclip’s Precedent
America’s victory in the Cold War owed much to borrowed brilliance. Operation Paperclip, a covert government initiative, spirited more than 1,600 German technologists across the Atlantic. Among them was Wernher von Braun, whose pioneering work in rocketry helped put a man on the moon. The absorption of such expertise turbocharged America’s scientific and military prowess, transforming it into an unrivalled innovator on the global stage.
This historical lesson is instructive: when knowledge migrates, power often follows. Should today’s American émigrés find fertile ground elsewhere, the implications could be similarly seismic.
Why the Exodus?
More Americans, particularly the skilled and educated, are eyeing exits. The motivations are myriad:
Living Costs and Economic Pressures – Astronomical housing prices, stagnating real wages, and an eroding middle class are prompting professionals to seek prosperity elsewhere. Countries like Canada, Germany and Portugal combine affordability with opportunity.
Fractured Politics – Deepening partisanship, institutional paralysis, and cultural polarization—exacerbated by the MAGA movement—have left many disillusioned with America’s trajectory.
Healthcare and Wellbeing – The United States remains the only wealthy nation without universal healthcare. By contrast, expatriates praise the peace of mind afforded by European and Asian systems.
Remote Work’s Liberation – The pandemic redefined where work happens. For many, the logic of staying tethered to a high-cost, high-stress American city has evaporated.
Emerging Market Allure – Some are lured by dynamism abroad. Nations once considered periphery are now innovation hubs. The pull is not only economic but aspirational.
Contenders for the Crown
Which nations might inherit America’s intellectual capital—and potentially its mantle? Only a handful, those with welcoming immigration regimes and ambitious national strategies, are poised to benefit.
Canada
Long the polite alternative to its southern neighbour, Canada is quietly absorbing talent at scale. Toronto and Vancouver, buoyed by tech booms and liberal visa policies, have become sanctuaries for America’s disaffected coders, scientists, and entrepreneurs.
Germany
As the EU’s economic engine, Germany combines formidable infrastructure with a commitment to industrial leadership. Berlin’s start-up scene and Bavaria’s engineering prowess offer rich pickings for those with ambition.
Portugal
Once peripheral, Portugal now leads in lifestyle migration. The Golden Visa scheme, coupled with a burgeoning tech ecosystem in Lisbon and Porto, makes it an attractive landing spot for digital nomads and founders alike.
Australia
Far-flung but forward-looking, Australia blends quality of life with economic resilience. Melbourne and Sydney are magnets for talent, helped by pathways to permanent residency.
Singapore
The Lion City is capitalism distilled: efficient, safe, and strategically situated. Its government aggressively courts foreign expertise, and its tech, finance, and logistics sectors are world-class. Few places convert brainpower into GDP as ruthlessly.
Ghana
Perhaps the most surprising contender, Ghana has recast itself as a Pan-African beacon. Through initiatives like the “Year of Return” and incentives for diaspora entrepreneurs, it is reversing the historical brain drain. With growing tech and finance sectors and remarkable political stability, Accra may become a nucleus for Black global talent.
HBCUs Look to Africa
Among the emigrants are graduates of America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). These institutions, long ignored in the mainstream, are now exporting a new vanguard of Black intellectuals and professionals.
In nations like Ghana, Nigeria, and Rwanda, HBCU alumni are finding not only economic opportunity but also cultural affirmation. Business-friendly policies, grants of land, and dual citizenship are part of the welcome mat. Crucially, these professionals are not just seeking refuge—they are shaping the future of African innovation.
Africa’s universities and research institutions are likewise tapping into this talent pipeline. Joint ventures, think tanks, and faculty exchanges hint at a new Pan-African intellectual economy—one rooted in both heritage and ambition.
America’s Loss
What happens when a country loses its best minds?
Innovation Decays – Fewer patent filings, less scientific output, and diminished R&D. The United States risks ceding supremacy in emerging fields like AI, biotech, and clean energy.
Economic Hollowing – Entrepreneurs take jobs and capital with them. Venture funding flows to where start-ups congregate.
Soft Power Slips – America’s influence derives not just from military might but from cultural prestige and intellectual leadership. An exodus of thinkers imperils both.
Strategic Risk – Just as the U.S. turned German rocket science into military advantage, others may now do the same with American AI or biotech expertise.
Can the Tide Be Turned?
Reversing this trend requires boldness:
Healthcare Reform – Without universal care, the U.S. will continue to appear brutal and bizarre to its own citizens.
Education and Infrastructure Investment – STEM pipelines and next-gen transit systems can rekindle optimism.
Immigration Overhaul – Welcoming the world’s best talent, while retaining its own, should be a bipartisan imperative.
Depolarisation – A republic in perpetual gridlock cannot inspire confidence.
A New Centre of Gravity?
Brain drain is not new. But in an age where ideas, not armies, shape empires, its impact is profound. If America does not reckon with its internal contradictions, it may soon find that the next superpower was made in America—by Americans—somewhere else.
Analysis: European Americans’ unemployment rate has remained steady for four straight months with virtually no change in unemployment rate. Asian Americans decreased 10 basis points and Latino Americans decreased 30 basis points from May, respectively. African America’s unemployment rate increased by 80 basis points from May.
AFRICAN AMERICAN EMPLOYMENT REVIEW
AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN:
Unemployment Rate – 6.9%
Participation Rate – 68.8%
Employed – 9,752,000
Unemployed – 721,000
African American Men (AAM) saw a increase in their unemployment rate by 170 basis points in June. The group had a mild rebound in their participation rate in June by 30 basis points. African American Men lost 117,000 jobs in June and saw their number of unemployed increase by 181,000.
AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN:
Unemployment Rate – 5.8%
Participation Rate – 60.9%
Employed – 10,248,000
Unemployed – 634,000
African American Women saw a decrease in their unemployment rate by 40 basis points in June. The group decreased their participation rate in June by 80 basis points. African American Women lost 84,000 jobs in June and saw their number of unemployed decrease by 50,000.
AFRICAN AMERICAN TEENAGERS:
Unemployment Rate – 19.2%
Participation Rate – 30.0%
Employed – 651,000
Unemployed – 155,000
African American Teenagers unemployment rate increased by 480 basis points. The group saw their participation rate increased by 210 basis points in June. African American Teenagers added 10,000 jobs in May and saw their number of unemployed also decrease 41,000.
African American Men-Women Job Gap: African American Women currently have 496,000 more jobs than African American Men in June. This is an increase from 463,000 in May.
CONCLUSION: The overall economy added 147,000 jobs in June while African America lost 193,000 jobs. From CNN, “It is becoming harder for Americans to find work: The average duration of unemployment rose from 21.8 weeks to 23 weeks, and the share of unemployed workers who have been out of a job for 27 weeks or longer rose to 23.3%, edging closer to a three-year high. Trump’s tariffs — and the dizzying back and forth on implementing them and pausing them — has caused many businesses to stall major decision-making or spending, including hiring.”
HBCU Money 