Implications

When it comes to attitudes and experiences related to care, our findings show that few differences exist between Black and white men who are high-intensity caregivers and/or parents, and between Black and white fathers. The finding about fathers, in particular, further disrupts stubborn narratives that attribute adverse social and economic outcomes to the “absent Black father,” a myth that obscures the very real impact of systemic racism, the main driver of inequity. Moreover, a major takeaway of this study is that Black men are crucial to the health and wellbeing of their families and the development of young children. However, without adequate access to workplace accommodations and paid leave, Black men face barriers to fulfilling the role of caregiver or father. Especially in 2021, the publication year of this report, the need for family-supportive policies that meet the needs of Black men with care responsibilities proves urgent.

The United States in 2020 went through one of the most challenging years in the nation’s recent history. By December 2020, the COVID-19 virus had infected more than 14 million people and led to the loss of 274,00 lives,. The pandemic also precipitated an economic recession, resulting in high unemployment rates, which peaked at a staggering 14 percent in April of 2020.¹ As eviction rates shot up and food banks increased their supply to meet the growing demand, across the nation, workers and families weathered tremendous financial, emotional, and personal losses. While the pandemic left no corner of the U.S. population untouched, it had a disproportionate impact on Black households. Although Black people constitute just 13.4 percent of the U.S. population, they accounted for more than one-quarter of all COVID-19 related hospitalizations and continue to face heightened risk of death or illness due to higher occurrences of health complications, like chronic disease.²

Public health officials tie these stark disparate racial health outcomes to social determinants of health, the social conditions which inform our physical, mental, and communal well being. These determinants, outlined by the Office of Disease Prevention and Promotion, include economic stability, education, social and community context, health and health care, and neighborhood or built environment.³ COVID-19 has worsened the financial well-being, housing security, educational opportunity and health of Black families and workers. All determinants are in some way informed by the presence or absence of social policies like paid family and medical leave.

Federal lawmakers had an opportunity to address these health inequities through coronavirus legislation aimed at providing job-protected leave, but only scratched the surface. The legislation Congress did pass in 2020, though momentous in that it included paid sick days and paid family medical leave provisions, excluded many workers in low-paying occupations and in the health sector, which are disproportionately staffed by people of color.⁴ These federal benefits, if universally accessible, would have likely supported even more Black men, who would have been able to use leave to care for family members who contracted the virus. A greater number of Black caregivers, regardless of their occupation, could have used emergency paid leave to care for older adults who could no longer access professional caregiving services like, adult day care. More Black fathers could have also used the leave to assist their school-age children with virtual schooling or provide needed supervision for young children in the absence of accessible childcare services. Too many Black families lacked access to job-protected paid family leave when they needed it most.

This report demonstrates that Black men perform valuable unpaid care work for the people in their lives and play an integral role in promoting the wellbeing of Black families. Before the pandemic, especially during the pandemic, and certainly after the pandemic, policymakers and employers must implement equity centered family-supportive policies and programs that acknowledge the caregiving responsibilities of Black men. It’s a matter of racial, economic, and health justice.