NEW YORK, May 9 (Xinhua) -- During most economic downturns, including the Great Recession and the current COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Black communities are disproportionately impacted, with their households spending more of post-tax income on necessities like food and energy, reported NBC on Sunday.

       "The rent has increased so much that people don't have a place to live," Elizabeth Omilami, chief executive of a Black-owned nonprofit in Atlanta, was quoted as saying. "And the rise in food prices has caused our numbers of people asking for emergency food to almost triple."

       William Darity Jr., professor of public policy of African American studies and economics at Duke University, told the national broadcaster that the underlying reason why inflation is so harmful to Black communities is the wealth gap.

       According to the professor, U.S. white households have more than 800,000 U.S. dollars more in net worth than Black households.

       "One of the key indicators of this is the virtually permanent two-to-one ratio in unemployment rates between Blacks and whites in the United States, which I view as a prime index of the degree of discrimination in American labor markets," Darity noted.