Social/Economic Indicators: Comparing Brown Era Racial Disparities to Today

1
Social/Economic Indicators Comparing Brown Era
Racial Disparities to Today
Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race
Ethnicity The Ohio State University April 2004
2
Benchmarks of Social/Economic Health

• Education
• Housing
• Poverty
• Employment
• Income
• Crime
• Health
• Other contemporary concerns

Note Not all data for this presentation match
perfectly with the Brown decision in 1954, due to
data availability and comparability problems some
data from later than 1954 were used
3
Education Educational Attainment
4
Educational Attainment

• Educational attainment for African Americans has
  increased considerably since 1950.
• The proportion of the population with a high
  school degree increased by 300 during this time,
  the proportion of the population with a 4-year
  college degree increased by almost 500
• Disparity between African American and White
  educational attainment has declined but is still
  prevalent

Source U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of
the Census, U.S. Census of Population, 1960, Vol.
1, part 1 Current Population Reports, Series
P-20 and unpublished data and 1960 Census
Monograph, Education of the American
Population, by John K. Folger and Charles B.
Nam. From U.S. Dept. of Education, National
Center for Education Statistics, Digest of
Education Statistics 2002
5
Education High School Dropout Rate
6
Education College Entrance Rate
7
Education H.S. Dropout and College Enrollment
Rates

• High School dropout rates for African Americans
  have decreased substantially in the last thirty
  years, dropping from 33.5 in 1974 to 17 in 2002
• H.S. dropout rates still remain 50 higher than
  the white dropout rate in 2002 of 11
• College enrollment rates have increased from 36
  in 1960 to 57.7 in 2002 for African Americans
  (an increase of 66)
• College enrollment rates for Whites increased by
  45 during this forty-four year time period

Source U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Post
Secondary Education Opportunity at
http//www.postsecondary.org
Note Data from 1960 for all non-white races, no
individual African American data collected
8
Housing Home Ownership
9
Home Ownership

• The proportion of African Americans renting has
  decreased by 17 since 1950, but the proportion
  of Whites renting has decreased by 33 during
  this same time period
• In 2000, the proportion of African American
  households that had obtained home ownership was
  65 lower than the proportion of white households
  that had obtained homeownership
• Source U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 Census and
  Statistical Abstract 1955

Note Data from 1950 for all non-white races, no
individual African American data collected
10
Poverty Poverty Rates
11
Poverty Child Poverty by Race
Child Poverty 1955 to 1995 Source Changing
America Indicators of Social and Economic
Well-Being by Race and Hispanic Origin (1997), By
the Council of Economic Advisors for President
Clinton
12
Poverty Trends

• African American poverty rates have declined by
  approximately 60 since 1959, White poverty rates
  declined by approximately 50 during this time
• Disparity persists African American individual
  and family poverty rates are currently twice the
  rate of Whites
• The number of African American children in
  poverty have declined substantially since 1960
• Disparity persists African American child
  poverty rates were approximately double the rate
  of white child poverty in the 1990s

13
Employment Unemployment by Race
Unemployment by Race 1950 to 1997 Source
Changing America Indicators of Social and
Economic Well-Being by Race and Hispanic Origin
(1997), By the Council of Economic Advisors for
President Clinton
14
Employment Disparity

• Unemployment rates have varied considerably over
  time as the U.S. Economy has cycled.
• Generally African American unemployment has been
  approximately twice as high as white unemployment
  throughout this time
• In 2003, unemployment disparity remains for
  African Americans and Hispanics
• The African American unemployment rate was 11.6
  for men in 2003, and 10.2 for women
• These figures are double the unemployment rates
  for white men (5.6) and women (4.8) in 2003

Sources Changing America Indicators of Social
and Economic Well-Being by Race and Hispanic
Origin (1997), By the Council of Economic
Advisors for President Clinton and current data
from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
15
Income Personal Income Growth (2001 s)
16
Income Family Income Growth (2001 s)
17
Income Growth

• Incomes have more than doubled for African
  American men, women and families since the 1950s
• Disparity in income has actually grown since
  1954, the median African American family income
  in 1954 was 55 of the white median, in 2002 this
  figure had grown to 62
• Although income disparity has closed, a
  tremendous disparity in net assets between
  African Americans and Whites is evident in recent
  Census Data
• In 2000, the median assets (7,500) for African
  American households was 9.5 of the median assets
  for non-Hispanic whites (79,000)

Source U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract
and Net Worth Report
18
Health Age Adjusted Mortality Rate
19
Health Life Expectancy by Race
Life Expectancy by Race 1930 to 1995 Source
Changing America Indicators of Social and
Economic Well-Being by Race and Hispanic Origin
(1997), By the Council of Economic Advisors for
President Clinton
20
Health

• Mortality rates have declined for both African
  Americans and Whites since 1954
• Disparity persists In 2002, mortality rates for
  African American men were 27 higher than
  mortality rates for White men, mortality rates
  are 14 higher for African American women than
  White women
• Average life expectancy for African American men
  and women have increased since 1950, but still
  remain lower than the White mortality rates

Sources Changing America Indicators of Social
and Economic Well-Being by Race and Hispanic
Origin (1997), By the Council of Economic
Advisors for President Clinton and mortality data
from the U.S. Census Bureau statistical abstract
Note Data from 1954 for mortality all non-white
races, no individual African American data
collected
21
Crime Homicide Victimization Rate
22
Crime Prison Admissions by Race
Prisons Admissions by Race 1930 to 1995 Source
Changing America Indicators of Social and
Economic Well-Being by Race and Hispanic Origin
(1997), By the Council of Economic Advisors for
President Clinton
23
Crime

• Victimization rates for homicide have declined
  27 for African Americans but are still 7 times
  the rate of White homicide victimization
• The number of incarcerated African Americans has
  increased 800 since the 1950s, the number of
  incarcerated African Americans surpassed the
  number of Whites incarcerated in the late 1980s

Sources Changing America Indicators of Social
and Economic Well-Being by Race and Hispanic
Origin (1997), By the Council of Economic
Advisors for President Clinton and current data
from the Bureau of Justice Statistics
24
Other Contemporary Trends

• Persistent Residential Segregation
• Residential segregation has decreased slightly in
  all metropolitan areas, but a high degree of
  segregation still exists in most metropolitan
  areas (particularly in the Northeast and Midwest)
• Source Lewis Mumford Center (2004)
• School District Segregation
• Research has shown increasing levels of
  segregation for Americas school districts, which
  is manifested at the regional level
• Source Harvard Civil Rights Project A
  Multiracial Society with Segregated Schools Are
  We Losing the Dream? (2003)
• People of Color Living in Concentrated Poverty
• In 2000, more than 2/3s of people living in
  concentrated urban poverty were African American
  or Hispanic
• In 1999, half of poor rural African Americans and
  Native Americans are found in concentrated
  poverty rural areas, 1/3 of all poor rural
  Hispanics are found in areas of high poverty.
• Source USDA, Economic Research Services,
  Brookings Institute

25
School Segregation Today Segregation and Student
Poverty
26
School Segregation Today Segregation and Student
Performance
27
School Segregation Today

• Urban sprawl and regional government
  fragmentation have worked to re-segregate urban
  school districts
• What is the link between todays segregated urban
  schools and student poverty or student
  performance?

Sources Dissimilarity Index Data from Lewis
Mumford Center, School District Data from
National Center for Education Statistics
28
Summary

• Data suggest improvements since 1954 vary based
  on the indicator, education and poverty has
  improved but economic and crime indicators have
  not improved as much
• Despite improvements across multiple indicators,
  significant racial disparities in education,
  poverty, economic health, income, health, crime
  still exist

29
Social Construction of Disparity

• Disparities are symptoms of structural racism.
• Simply recognizing disparities is not enough, we
  need to examine our assumptions surrounding them.
• Disparities in the early 20th century were
  attributed by genetic differences. Today they are
  attributed to defects in culture. Is there any
  difference in these viewpoints?
• Inequality is built into the system. Disparities
  are not a sign that the current system isnt
  working, they are a sign that it is working
  exactly as it is supposed to.

• Source American Apartheid Douglas S. Massey
  Nancy A Denton

30
Social Construction of Disparity

• Over the course of the last century, racism
  leaped from being inscribed in our laws to being
  inscribed in our spatial arrangements.
• Wealth reproduces opportunity. The present
  arrangement will continue to increasingly
  perpetuate disparities if left unchecked.
• The damages of structural racism are wreaking
  havoc on the economy, health, psychology, and the
  quality of life and education of our society and
  its members.

31
Social Construction of Disparity

• Disparities exist on many levels individual,
  group, neighborhood, city, metropolitan area and
  nation.
• Regardless of educational, occupational, and
  demographic characteristics, wealth is racially
  disparate.
• Middle class blacks possess fifteen cents for
  every dollar of wealth held by middle-class
  whites.
• The average white Americans median net worth is
  twelve times that of black Americans.
• It is twice as difficult for blacks to obtain a
  mortgage as it is for whites with comparable
  incomes.
• It is three times as difficult for blacks to gain
  employment in the service sector as whites.

• Racial Healing Confronting the Fear Between
  Blacks and Whites Douglas S. Massey Nancy A
  Denton
• Face to Face The Changing State of Racism in
  America J Waller

32
How Brown Influenced Subsequent Civil Rights
Jurisprudence

• What is segregation?
• de jure
• legally imposed segregation
• de facto
• segregation (especially in schools) that happens
  in fact although not required by law.

33
How Brown Influenced Subsequent Civil Rights
Jurisprudence

• What is segregation?
• In regard to schools, segregation pertains to
  situations in which a disproportionate number of
  white students or students of color attend a
  school or school system. 

34
How Brown Influenced Subsequent Civil Rights
Jurisprudence

• Segregation can also be defined from emotional,
  psychological, mental, physical, legal and social
  perspectives.
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. defined segregation as
  a twin evil that gives a sense of inferiority to
  Blacks, and a sense of superiority to Whites.
  He posits that segregation creates a distorted
  psychological self that in turn distorts
  democracy

35
What is Desegregation?

• Desegregation refers to efforts at remedying
  racial imbalances. It traditionally means
  removing formal legal barriers, or simply placing
  students of different races in proximity to each
  other. Efforts are often limited to moving and
  mixing racial populations to end racial
  isolation. As it has played out in most of
  Americas educational settings, desegregation
  requires students of the non-dominant group (most
  often nonwhite) to assimilate into the school and
  culture created for and controlled by the
  dominant group (most often white). Structures
  are not altered to meet the needs of the new and
  different students.1
• 1 Ware, L. and M. Ware 1996. Plessys Legacy
  Desegregating the Eurocentric Curriculum.
  Georgia State University Law Review 12. Fix cite
  and find page.

36
What is Integration?

• The word segregation represents a system that is
  prohibitive it denies the Negro equal access to
  schools, parks, restaurants, libraries and the
  like. Desegregation is eliminative and negative,
  for it simply removes these legal and social
  prohibitions.  Integration is creative, and is
  therefore more profound and far-reaching than
  desegregation.  Integration is the positive
  acceptance of desegregation and the welcomed
  participation of Negroes in the total range of
  human activities.  Integration is genuine
  intergroup, interpersonal doing.  Desegregation
  then, rightly is only a short-range goal.
  Integration is the ultimate goal of our national
  community.

Quote by Dr. Martin Luther King from The Ethical
Demands for Integration