How We Spend Tells Us Whose Lives Matter

In this piece cowritten by Salamishah Tillet for the New York Times, the authors argue that the next federal stimulus package has to reduce inequality, not make it worse.

The federal coronavirus relief packages were less effective than they could have been because they ignored the ways that the pandemic would inevitably harm some communities more than others.

We must do better.

Before doling out any money, we propose that governments at the local, state and federal levels, as well as philanthropies, analyze the impact the funding would have on women, men, boys, girls and nonbinary people across race and class and other social identities. Then they should ensure the money is allocated in a way that alleviates inequality, rather than reproduces it.