During the Great Depression, was life better or worse for African Americans than it was for the lower class?

During the Great Depression, life was worse for African American than it was for the lower class.

Explanation:

The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the United States. Its start was signaled by the stock market crash that led to a panicked selling of assets. Followed by deflation in commodity and asset prices and a lowering in demand and credit, it generated a process that resulted in severe unemployment (13 million people by 1932). For African Americans, that time was even harder than it was for white people. They were the first ones to lose their jobs - and at a higher rate, due to pervasive racism -, and received less aid from public assistance programs than white people did. As a matter of fact, even some charitable organizations would not serve African Americans in their soup kitchens.

as university of miami psychologists debra lieberman and adam smith pointed out in a recent article in the journal current directions in psychological science, humans have social and psychological mechanisms to deter incest. with very few exceptions, marriages between brothers and sisters and between parents and their children are verboten in every human culture. the primary psychological anti-incest mechanism is the yuck response. even the idea of sex with their mom or dad, bro or sis is upsetting to most people. the psychologist jonathan haidt has found that nearly everyone is repelled by the prospect of brother-sister sex, even in hypothetical situations in which there is no chance of pregnancy).

the biological cost of incest

this raises an interesting question: just what’s so bad about incest? sure, having sex with your dad or your sister seems gross — but why? some anthropologists have argued that incest taboos are learned social conventions. this explanation, however, doesn’t make sense to me as it does not explain the widespread existence of anti-incest mechanisms in creatures ranging from cockroaches to chimpanzees. second, the incest taboo is about as close to a universal law as human moral rules get.

why should mechanisms to avoid incest be so widespread both in nature and across human societies? the answer is simple. the problem with having sex close with relatives is that there is an astonishingly high chance that your offspring will be born with a serious birth defect.