Blacks ‘stall’ in race divide
THE STATE of black America is one of crisis, according to a detailed new report from the National Urban League.
The study — issued annually since 1976 — found a troubling inequality between blacks and whites across several sectors, including education, wealth, employment, earnings and health care.
Black Americans’ “equality index” stands at 72.2% compared to 100% for whites — meaning blacks experience less than threefourths the quality of life of white Americans, according to the “2015 State of Black America.”
It’s a slight improvement from the 71.5% reported last year, but there’s still a persistent and disturbing gap between the races, said National Urban League President Marc Morial.
“My takeaway is that there’s still people stuck in the recession. In too many categories we are stalled or slipping,” he said.
Among the key findings in the report:
Black median household income is about 60% that of whites: $34,815 versus $57,684.
Blacks are twice as likely to live in poverty: 27.6% versus 11.1% of whites.
Black unemployment is nearly double that of whites: 11.3% versus 5.3%
In terms of wealth, meaning assets owned versus debt, the median black household has $6,314 vs. $110,500. Black households average 6 cents in wealth for every dollar of white household wealth.
Thanks to Obamacare, the health index for blacks is up, Morial said.
“There has been a noticeable, discernible and marked difference,” he said. “It was a huge intervention.”
And the number of blacks graduating high school and moving on to college has also gone up.
But overall, blacks lag behind whites in reading and math in almost every state, the report found.
And black unemployment across the nation was routinely in the double digits.
In the New York metro area, black joblessness was at 14%, compared to 6.7% for whites. In Detroit, it was 20.3% versus 7.6%, and in Toledo, Ohio, it was 22.6% to 8%.
The figures were a “stunning reminder” of America’s racial inequality, said the Rev. Al Sharpton.
“It’s not a question of can we do something but that we must do something,” he said. Many New Yorkers agreed. “The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and many of the poorer are black,” said Steven Goldstone, 67, of the Upper West Side.