NPR is reporting that a recent Economic Policy Institute report highlighted a significant decline in Black women's employment rate in 2025, falling by 1.4 percentage points to 55.7%. It said this was one of the sharpest one-year declines in 25 years, with Black women holding Bachelor's degrees and those in public sector jobs experiencing the greatest losses. NPR noted this occurred as the Trump administration rolled back anti-discrimination safeguards and eliminated hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs, which were once crucial for Black upward mobility.
The outlet also explored the challenges of "authenticity" in the workplace, featuring a conversation with author Jodi-Ann Burey. Burey, who wrote "Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work," shared her experience returning to work as a Black, disabled woman. She found that employers often do not genuinely mean it when they ask employees to bring their authentic selves to work, especially when differences are perceived as antagonistic to institutional norms. Burey explained that biases, such as assuming anger when she was in pain or a lack of collegiality for taking remote meetings due to disability, illustrate this trap.
Separately, NPR's Odette Yousef discussed the white nationalist group Patriot Front. It said the group focuses on high-visibility stunts and operates with finances resembling a pyramid scheme, selling items like stickers and stencils. The report also touched on the State Department convening 60 nations against what it terms far-left terrorism, contrasting this with the federal government's counterterrorism focus.