How improving employment for men of color could improve race relations

The death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri ignited a conversation about race relations around the country.

Angela Glover Blackwell, the founder and CEO of Policylink, a national research institute for advancing economic and social equity, says that one of the ways we can even out racial disparities is by improving employment for men of color:

Men and boys of color face an employment crisis. In last month's jobs numbers, unemployment among African-American men was more than twice the rate of white men. Unemployment among African-American youth ages 16-19 is over 33 percent. Unemployment in the same age group among white youth is much lower, 18.9 percent. In many places across the country, the unemployment rates are much higher. In Chicago, an astounding 92 percent of young African-American men between the ages of 16-19 are jobless. Not only do they face higher rates of unemployment, African-American and Latino men are dropping out of the labor force participation at higher rates, too. This staggering unemployment of young men of color is devastating for them, their families, and communities: it is the crux of the problem.

This week, she helped organize an open letter to President Barack Obama, urging him to take more action.

She joins The Daily Circuit to discuss programs and companies that are committed to helping and hiring men of color and what it could mean for race relations in America.