Inland Empire's Black students face barriers
Community Foundation report highlights equity gaps but notes progress
Nestled in Moreno Valley is the Garvey/allen STEAM Academy, which aims to help historically disenfranchised students achieve academic success.
The predominantly Black charter school's opening in 2019 followed a decadeslong climb in the Inland Empire's Black population.
Tiffany Gilmore, Garvey/ Allen's superintendent and founder, said Inland schools may not have been prepared for the influx, which happened in part because of the region's lower cost of living. Today, she said, Black students continue to face barriers, including a lack of cultural representation in the classroom. Also, funding disparities have pushed parents to enroll their children in private or charter schools or move to neighborhoods with better schools, she said.
“All of those things are really real, especially for Black and brown families who want their kids to be able to enjoy, and have, the stateof-the-art facilities and the best teachers and books and technology,” Gilmore said.
Gilmore's observations are echoed in a new report that concludes that, while the Inland Empire has offered benefits to Black residents, many racial disparities persist, creating a need for solutions that residents like Gilmore are working toward.
The Black Equity Fund Report, commissioned by the Inland Empire Community Foundation and compiled by Mapping Black California, shows achievements and gaps in equity for Black residents in the Inland region.
“The goal of this report was to make this data, both good and bad, more widely accessible to all in the region,” said Candice Mays, project director of Mapping Black California, a data-reporting project of the Riverside-based Black Voice News. “We wanted to centralized information to make it more broadly accessible.” In Riverside County, the number of Black residents increased from 5.4% in 1990 to an estimated 7.5% in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Meanwhile, San Bernardino County's Black population rose from 8.1% to an estimated 9.3% during that same period.
Some inequalities have improved over time, and the report says that cul
tural events, grassroots initiatives and other institutions can help by providing platforms “for community members to voice concerns, mobilize resources and advocate for change.”
Yet, it concludes that the “stark disparities revealed by the data cannot be overlooked.”
Some of the report’s key takeaways for the Inland Empire include:
■ The region is home to the third-largest Black population in California, behind Los Angeles and the Bay Area. If trends continue, it will soon be the second-largest.
■ Home ownership numbers show a disparity. Only 45.3% of Inland Empire Black residents are homeowners, compared to 59.6% of Latino residents, 71.8% of White residents and 73.2% of Asian residents.
■ On average, Black residents earn about 33% less than White residents.
■ Black and White resi- dents receive high school diplomas and bachelor’s degrees at about the same rate, but Black people earn fewer master’s degrees. For bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Asian residents have the highest attainment numbers, while Latino residents have the lowest.
■ Black people in the Inland area are more than twice as likely to be incarcerated as White residents.
Some positive changes for Black residents include a shift in job types, with about 8% more workers in management, business, scientist and arts roles in the past decade. Civic engagement is also thriving, with an average voting turnout of 71.1% in presidential elections.
Disparities
Mays said Black residents often can’t find housing because of various factors. The majority of cases are due to low-paying jobs in the Inland Empire, the scarcity of housing and the rising cost of living and rent, she said.
Anaija Linton, who is Black, lives with her mother in Corona. She and her boyfriend, an assistant manager in retail, have been searching for a place to live in the Inland Empire for the past four months. Everything is “very expensive now,” Linton said, and most options she sees aren’t in the best area or are luxury apartments that start at $2,000 to $3,000 per month — beyond the couple’s budget.
“Our budget was between $1,800 to $1,900, but that’s not even livable where we are,” Linton, 22, said. “I can find something for $2,000 but what am I getting for that?”
Linton, a social services case manager, said Rialto is likely “more accessible” for them to move to, but because of the lack of housing, “places get taken up so quickly there.”
In Riverside County, 53.6% of Black residents own homes, versus 37.1% in San Bernardino County, the report shows.
Across the U.S., the gap between White and Black homeowners was worse in the 2022 Census than over a decade ago, according to a 2024 report by the National Association of Realtors.
Habitat for Humanity is one organization working to put house keys into the hands of more Black families.
The Temecula-based Habitat for Humanity Inland Valley, which serves southwest Riverside County, uses a homeownership program to help low-income firsttime homeowners. It includes education classes on homebuying, credit and housing counseling.
“There’s a lot of different barriers that have challenged Black homeownership potential,” said Tammy Marine, CEO for Habitat for Humanity Inland Valley. “Some of those things are inequities degrees about the in access to credit, redlin- same rate as White stu- ing, barriers that prohibit dents. someone from saving up In the San Bernardino for a down payment, getting Community College District, a loan and under-employment.” Vice Chancellor of Educational and Student
Marine said that nationally, Support Services Nohemy about 43% of Ornelas said the COVID-19 Habitat for Humanity’s pandemic hit minority homeownership opportunities students the hardest. — such as affordable But overall, the past housing, racial-equity few years have seen an lending, funding for local upward trend in minority Black people trying to buy enrollment, including for homes — go to Black families. Black students, who account She also said 85% of for about 9% of the homeownership opportunities district. in her branch’s area While some numbers have gone to families of have kept up or improved, color. the report says Black students
Black people also remain “are still 15% more overrepresented likely to be absent from among the homeless. school, 5% more likely to Based on the 2023 Pointin-time be suspended and the likelihood homeless count, they attend college they accounted for 21.6% has been on a slow decline.” of the Inland Empire’s homeless population. The Gilmore, who worked two-county average has at public school districts stayed within a few percentage before founding Garvey/ points of that Allen, sees limitations in number since 2015, when suspensions and other disciplinary both started including racial approaches, saying breakdowns. they don’t work unless
Solutions to this problem students have a chance to are connected with learn from their actions. other aspects of the report, She recalled an incident at the authors said. a different school in which Black Inland Empire residents she had to call a school resource need higher wages, officer after a student more jobs and affordable lunged at a teacher housing to close the gaps in a disagreement over his between Black residents phone. and other ethnic groups. “It was like his luck had run out, and the school system was ready to just throw him away,” she said. “And how can I continue to fight for equity and justice of our Black children, and have to be the one to call to have him taken away in handcuffs?”
Another shortcoming Gilmore cited is the lack
Education gaps
In terms of education, the report found that in the Inland Empire, Black students have seen increased high school graduation rates and reduced dropout rates in the past decade and are earning high school and bachelor’s of Black culture in lessons.
“The kids have to see themselves in some way, shape, or form” to understand why they should learn about something, she said. Garvey/allen weaves Black representation into its STEM and arts topics — which include robotics, culinary arts and coding — in hopes of preparing students for careers.
Ornelas echoed the value of cultural inclusion.
In 2022, she said, the district revamped its strategic plan, and one new focus was “institutionalized diversity, equity, inclusion and access.”
Black and college students cited the importance of community and support systems, she said. Students in need can access resources like food pantries, gas cards, meals, emergency funding and mental health counseling.
Ornelas also mentioned the importance of representation, referencing a recent event that connected Black STEM professionals to students.
Meanwhile, the Garvey/allen charter school, which serves 205 fifththrough eighth-graders, is preparing to expand and will start accepting kindergarten and elementary students next school year.
The school’s inaugural graduates are now high school seniors, said Gilmore, who added that former students’ accounts of public school differ.
But, she said, “some have expressed that their experience at Garvey/allen helped prepare them for the next step.”