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Despite gains in many areas, African Americans still fare worse than whites and other demographic groups in terms of education, income and involvement in the criminal justice system, according to a report presented Thursday by the National Urban League.
“I must use the word crisis. Crisis, we face a crisis,” said Marc H. Morial, President and Chief Executive of the National Urban League, which released the 2015 State of Black America report at a news conference in the District.
The report, which has been issued annually for four decades, uses calculations called an equality index to gauge the standard of living in the United States for different ethnic and racial groups.
The standard of living for a black person, Morial said, is 72 percent of the standard of living for the average white person.
The equality index for Hispanics moved up two points to 77.7 percent over last year, largely based on gains in math and reading proficiency for elementary school students.
In terms of economics, health care and social justice, Morial said, American society remains “a tale of two cities.”
The city with the lowest black median income in the country was Toledo, at $21,699. But even in the affluent Washington region, which logged the highest median income for blacks, the disparities are glaring.
The median income for blacks in the D.C. metropolitan area is $64,663, the report said, while the median income for whites — the highest in the country for that group as well — is $108,254.
The Washington region ranked seventh in the county in terms of income inequality.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, who wrote an article titled “Answering the Call to Action” that was part of the report, said one challenge for cities experiencing a renaissance — like the District — is making sure that the boom impacts all residents in a positive way.
“We are at the front lines of making sure that black America remains strong,” Bowser (D) said at the news conference. “People indeed are rediscovering cities — all people. But as people rediscover cities, we see the pressure on housing prices. The affordability of our cities is changing.”
In terms of job creation, Morial said, African Americans have seen gains, but the unemployment rate for blacks with college degrees is higher than the unemployment rate for whites with college degrees.
Benjamin Crump, a lawyer who represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, wrote in the report about the need to reform court systems and police departments.
“When you look at the glaring statistics, not only are police officers profiling people in the streets but in the criminal justice system,” he said in an interview Thursday. “There is an epidemic not just on people of color but on poor people when they come seeking justice.”
To read the full article, please visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/annual-state-of-black-america-report-shows-troubling-disparities-persist/2015/03/19/86f33ec4-ce6e-11e4-a2a7-9517a3a70506_story.html
