Who We Are

Problem: Despite our pledge of allegiance -- that we are "one nation, under God, indivisible," -- the opportunity gap between Native Americans, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and whites in the U.S. is stark and consistent across many indicators. There is also a profound gap between the views of the minority population and of white Americans as to whether historic discrimination and racial disadvantage have been eliminated.

See Morin, "Misperceptions Cloud Whites' View of Blacks," Washington Post, July 11, 2001, A1, A7: "Whether out of hostility, indifference or simple lack of knowledge, large numbers of white Americans incorrectly believe that blacks are as well off as whites in terms of their jobs, incomes, schooling and health care, according to a national survey by the Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University. . . . In fact, government statistics show that blacks have narrowed the gap, but continue to lag significantly behind whites in employment, income, education and access to health care." (A2)
For information on how African-American students' perceptions of the schools they attend differs from those of white students, how this may contribute to their sense of alienation from these schools and their lower academic performance, AND what can be done about it, click here.

In the wake of the urban riots of the late 1960s, the Kerner Commission report then concluded that the nation was "moving towards two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal." Thirty years later, the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation issued a report entitled, "America in Black and White, One Nation Indivisible: Race in Modern America."

Lynn Curtis, President, Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation, McNeil-Lehrer News Hour, March 2, 1998 (transcript): "We looked at what has happened in the 30 years since the original Kerner Commission report came out, and what we found is there’s been good progress in many areas, for example, the African-American middle class has increased, and high school graduation rates for African-Americans have improved. We also found at the same time, though, that there have been a lot of negatives. For example, employment in inner cities is a Depression levels at the same time that we celebrate a supposedly robust economy. The rich have been getting richer at the same time the poor have been getting poorer. The working class has been getting poor. The middle class has also lost ground to the rich. You mentioned the [20%] increase in child poverty [in the '80s].

"Today, our child poverty rate is four times higher than in western Europe and today, for example, the rate of incarceration of African-American men is four times higher than in pre-Mandela apartheid South Africa. And so when you look at income, when you look at wealth, when you look at wages, when you look at employment, when you look at education, when you look at the bias of the criminal justice system, you see a growing breach, and that’s why we have said, on balance, things are getting worse."

Child Welfare & Family Structure

Parental Presence: According to the National Survey of American Families, in 1996, "the vast majority of white and Asian children lived with two parents, while slightly more than half of Hispanic children and half of Native American children lived in two-parent families. In contrast, only about one-third of black children lived with two parents, a rate less than half the national average. . . . The rate of no-parent families among blacks and Native Americans is at least three times the rate of any other racial/ethnic group. [Children in no-parent families include, for example, those who are emancipated minors or those living with their grandparents.]"
Poverty & Family Structure: The same survey showed that "Nationally, poverty in one-parent families is four times as high as poverty in two-parent families." Id.
Poverty & Race/Ethnic Background: "Children born into black, Native American, or Hispanic families are almost three times as likely to be poor as children born into white and Asian families." Id.

Earnings/Financial Resources/Employment

Assets: "Blacks were . . . about half as likely as whites to have money invested in stocks, bonds or mutual funds [in 2001]." Morin, "Misperceptions Cloud Whites' View of Blacks," Washington Post, July 11, 2001, A7.
Assets: In 1995, the typical black household held only 12 percent of the wealth of the typical white household. With housing excluded, that figure would be 1 percent. More than 30 percent of black households (and 15 percent of white households) have no net worth. Bradsher, "Rich-poor Disparity in U.S. Worst Among Industrial Nations," New York Times, April 17, 1995.
Income: In 1996, "nearly half of Hispanic men who were working earned less than $10 per hour compared with one-fifth of white men," according to Monheit and Vistnes' study for the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, "Race/ethnicity and health insurance status: 1987 and 1996," Medical Care Research and Review 57 (Suppl.1), Nov. 2000 , pp. 11-35.
Income: Similarly, in 2001, "Blacks are about twice as likely as whites--23 percent versus 12 percent--to hold lower-paying, less prestigious service jobs. . . . [S]ubstantial differences persist between black and white earnings. The median household income for whites was $44,366 in 1999, compared with $27,910 for blacks. Fewer than three in 10 whites earn less than $25,000; nearly half of all blacks earned less than that." Morin, "Misperceptions Cloud Whites' View of Blacks," Washington Post, July 11, 2001, A7.
Poverty: According to the National Survey of American Families, "Across all racial and ethnic groups, 15 percent of the non-elderly are poor [as of 1996]. Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans, however, each have poverty rates almost twice as high as Asians and almost three times as high as whites. . . . Hispanics are significantly more likely than blacks to be low-income [i.e., income at 100-200% of poverty level]." By 2001, "the poverty rate for African Americans [remains] more than double the white rate." Morin, op cit., A7.
Professional Employment: "A third of all whites hold professional or managerial jobs, compared to slightly more than one-fifth of all blacks, according to census data." Morin, "Misperceptions Cloud Whites' View of Blacks," Washington Post, July 11, 2001, A7.
Unemployment: "Blacks also are more than twice as likely to be unemployed; in May [2001] the jobless rate for blacks stood at 8 percent, compared with 3.8 percent among whites." Id. By January 2002, "The total number of people without jobs who were looking for one increased to 8.3 million from 5.7 million in December 2000. And the jobless rate for blacks was in double-digits last month for the first time in four years, almost double the rate for whites. . . . Unemployment among whites rose to 5.1 percent from 5.0 percent, among blacks to 10.2 percent from 9.9 percent and among people of Hispanic origin to 7.9 percent from 7.4 percent. During last year [2001], the roughly 12 million workers who do not have high school diplomas experienced a greater risk in joblessness than any other group determined by educational attainment. Unemployment for this less educated group rose 2.6 percentage points, to 8.8 percent, compared with the increase among all workers of 1.8 percentage points." Berry, "Joblessness Rises, but Some Positive Signs Seen," Washington Post, January 5, 2002, E1, E. 3.

Education

Educational Opportunity: " . . . a child who grows up in south-central Los Angeles is seven times less likely to graduate from college than a child who grows up in Beverly Hill." Kopp, W., One Day, All Children. . . : The Unlikely Triumph of Teach for America and What I Learned Along the Way, New York: Public Affairs, 2001, p. 174.
Education Levels: According to a 2001 Washington Post poll, ". . . half of all whites -- 49 percent -- believe that blacks and whites have similar levels of education, a perception that again is out of step with reality. About one in six blacks--17 percent--have completed college compared with 28 percent of all whites." Morin, "Misperceptions Cloud Whites' View of Blacks," Washington Post, July 11, 2001, A7.
High School Drop Out Rate: According to the Monheit and Vistnes' study for the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, as of 1996, "38 percent of Hispanic men had not completed high school compared with only 10 percent of white men." According to the Washington Post article cited above, "88 percent of all whites are high school graduates, compared with 79 percent of all blacks 25 years and older." (A7) According to 2004 research by Harvard University and the Urban Institute, in California "Only 55 percent of African American students, and 57 percent of Latino students, graduate with regular diplomas. The figures are even lower for male students in these groups." By comparison, the statewide average for students completing their high school diplomas on time is 69 percent. "The Dropout State," Irvine Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. 13 (Winter 2005), http://www.irvine.org/publications/iq/youth.shtml.
Per Pupil Spending (Wisconsin): "Wisconsin school funding policies tolerate a huge funding gap between urban schools with large numbers of minority students and predominantly white suburban schools, according to a report [entitled "The Return to Separate and Unequal: Metropolitan Milwaukee School Funding Through a Racial Lens"] released Monday (January 15, 2000) by the Milwaukee-based education reform group Rethinking Schools. The report says these policies are further widening the school funding gap each year. . . . In 1980, when the white and black populations in MPS were roughly equal, Milwaukee was $265 above the state average for shared cost per pupil, and only $127 below the suburban average (almost 5% below the suburbs.) By 1998, when MPS was a majority black district with about 80% students of color, Milwaukee was $506 below the state average, and $1,254 below the suburban average (nearly 20% below the suburbs). The gap had increased 400% since 1980."
Per Pupil Spending (NY): "The release of this report closely follows a landmark school ruling in New York on January 10, [2001] which declared that the state's deficient school funding system violated federal civil rights laws by causing an adverse and disparate impact on minority students. The New York ruling was the first time a school funding method had been found illegal not just on state constitutional grounds, but also because the funding policy violated federal civil rights laws. The ruling specifically noted the unequal funding in New York City, where more than 70% of the state's students of color live." Id.
Equitable Spending (Ohio): "Hoping to break a 10-year impasse, the Ohio Supreme Court on Friday [11/16/01] ordered mediation in a lawsuit that contends poor school districts are shortchanged by the state. The justices ruled in September that the state had to spend more money on schools to make its funding constitutional. State officials later estimated the cost at $1.2 billion a year and . . . [t]he court agreed [to reconsider], leading to the mediation order." "Court Orders Mediation in School Funding Suit," Washington Post, November 18, 2001, A4.
Equitable Spending (Overview): "IN JANUARY, NEW York Supreme Court Judge Leland DeGrasse declared New York State's school funding system unconstitutional. The Judge handed a victory to the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which had sued the state for inequalities in public school funding. To date 19 states have had their school funding programs deemed unconstitutional and been ordered by courts to correct inequalities. Led by Massachusetts and Utah, only a handful of states spend more financial aid on low-income school districts than wealthy ones. (Source: www.edtrust.org). " See "The School Funding Gap," www.inequality.org/schoolfundingfr.html.
Math/Science Performance: When former governor of Colorado, Roy Romer, took over as head of the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2000, a school district with over 700,000 students, "13% black, 70% Hispanic, and 4% Asian, he found that "Half of all new teachers [were] uncertified, and 70% of schools post failing scores in reading or math. And although enrollment has soared, the district has not built a school in 17 years -- except for an unfinished, $175 million disaster sitting on an old oilfield that is seeping toxic chemicals." The author of this article concluded: "In its weak performance, unmanageability and trouble finding a superintendent, Los Angeles is similar to other urban districts." Lawrence, "Los Angeles Schools Chief Romer Refuses to Walk Away," USA Today, June 14, 2001, pp. 8A, 9A.
Math/Science Performance: ". . . although both black and white students improved their performance [in passing eighth grade science proficiency tests in 1999 compared to 1996 rates], the gap between them grew. Forty-three percent of white eighth-graders [in Columbus, Ohio public schools] passed the science section of the . . . proficiency test in 1996, while only 26 percent of black students met that goal -- a difference of 17 percentage points. By 1999, both groups had improved, but the gap between white and black students passing the science test widened to 22 percentage points. . . . A similar but less severe pattern was evident in eighth-grade math passing rates. . . . The gap separating the two groups widened from 19 to 21 percentage points." Bush, "More Kids in Class for Math, Science," Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, June 29, 2001, D7. See also Fletcher, "Students Found Lacking in Science: 12th-Graders' Skills Declining, Nationwide Study Reports," Washington Post, November 21, 2001, A. 18: "The [science proficiency] scores of black and Hispanic students were lower than the national averages [in the National Association of Education Progress]. Just 7 percent of black fourth- and eighth-graders and 3 percent of black 12th-graders scored above proficient on the exam. Just 11 percent of Hispanic fourth-graders, 12 percent of Hispanic eighth-graders and 7 percent of Hispanic 12th-graders scored at or above proficient."
Math Performance: The National Assessment of Educational Progress Survey in mathematics for year 2000 shows "a glaring separation of in student achievement between minority students and their peers," according to Secretary of Education, Roderick R. Paige. For details of this disparity and discussion of the causes, see How the Public Schools Are Failing Our Children -- Mathematics.
Scholastic Aptitude Test Scores: "College Board President Gaston Caperton noted that the [SAT] scores of most minority groups still trail those of whites. The disparities among whites and most minority groups, notably Latinos and blacks, resemble those on other tests and show up as early as fourth grade, he said. 'They are clear evidence of inequitable access to high-quality education,' he said at a news conference in Washington . . . . African American Students nationwide scored an average of 201 points lower than whites on the combined math and verbal SAT, worse than last year's 198. Mexican Americans scored an average of 151 points below non-Latino whites, versus 147 in 2000." Groves, "SAT's Gender Gap Widening," Los Angeles Times, August 29, 2001, A10.

Food and Nutrition

Food Hardship: "To measure food hardship, adults in the family were asked whether: (1) they or their families worried that food would run out before they got money to buy more, (2) the food they bought did run out, or (3) one or more adults ate less or skipped meals because there wasn’t enough money for food. . . . .The differences in food hardship across racial and ethnic groups are striking; across all income groups, Hispanic, black, and Native American non-elderly experienced food problems at a rate nearly twice that of white and Asian non-elderly [in 1996]," according to the National Survey of American Families.

Health and Safety

Overview: "Experts have long known that blacks have more medical problems and get inferior health care compared with whites. At a presentation Wednesday in Washington, D.C., a former surgeon general tallied the human cost of this 'racial health gap," noting that it causes nearly 84,000 premature deaths a year. David Satcher, who was U.S. Surgeon General from 1998 to 2002, also published his findings in an issue of the journal Health Affairs dedicated to the subject of unequal medical treatment of minorities.

- "In another essay, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., notes several key challenges: > The infant mortality rate for blacks is twice as high as the general population's rate. >The death rate for cancer os 34% higher for blacks than whites. > Blacks are nearly twice as likely as whites to get diabetes.
- "In a landmark paper commissioned by Congress, the Institute of Medicine in 2002 found that such problems persist even when blacks earn as much as whites and have the same health insurance. . . . Some recent research has linked poor [health] care to racially segregated neighborhoods." Source: Szabo, "Lawmakers call for end to gaps in health care: Minority divide called 'an embarrassment,'" USA Today, March 10, 2005, p. 4D

"Racial and ethnic minorities in the United States receive lower quality health care than whites, even when their insurance and income are the same, say a panel of scientific experts who termed their study a wake-up call to the nation's doctors. The study, made public today by the Institute of Medicine, an independent research institution that advises Congress, is the first comprehensive look at racial disparities in health care among people who have health insurance. While the so-called race gap in medicine has been well-documented, previous research has attributed much of the problem to lack of access to care. The panel cited subtle racial prejudice and differences in the quality of health plans as possible reasons why even insured members of minorities get worse care.
"'The differences are pervasive,' said Martha N. Hill, director of the Center for Nursing Research at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, and the co-vice chairwoman of the panel. 'It cuts across all conditions of health and across the entire country, and we think this is a very serious moral issue.' Saying they were deeply troubled by the findings, the authors made recommendations that included additional research to understand how bias affects care, efforts to increase the number of minority doctors, and the use of interpreters to ease communication between physicians and patients who do not speak English."

"The report, which reviewed more than 100 studies conducted over the last decade, concluded that the disparities contribute to higher death rates among minorities from cancer, heart disease, diabetes and H.I.V. infection. It found that members of minorities were less likely to be given appropriate medications for heart disease, or to undergo bypass surgery, and are less likely to receive kidney dialysis or transplants than whites. They are also less likely to receive the most sophisticated treatments for infection with H.I.V., which could delay the onset of AIDS."

"But members of minorities are more likely to receive certain less desirable procedures. The committee cited a study of Medicare beneficiaries, for instance, that found blacks were 3.6 times as likely as whites to have their lower limbs amputated as a result of diabetes. 'Some of us on the committee were surprised and shocked at the extent of the evidence,' said the chairman of the panel, Dr. Alan R. Nelson, a former president of the American Medical Association. He added, 'The evidence is overwhelming.' . . .

"The authors of the study offered multiple explanations for the disparities, among them quality of insurance. Members of minorities are more likely than whites to be enrolled in lower-end insurance plans that impose stricter limits on medical services, and that require doctors to see more patients, spending less time with each. Yet the study found that differences persist even when minority and white patients have the same insurance, in part because minority patients are less likely than whites to have a long-lasting relationship with a primary care physician.

"Racial bias, albeit subconscious, may also be at work, the study found. While the panel said most health providers were well-intentioned, it cited 'indirect evidence' that doctors' decisions were influenced by their perceptions of race. As an example, the authors cited a study of major medical centers in New York State that found African-Americans were 37 percent less likely to undergo angioplasty and other heart procedures, including bypass surgery, than whites."

. . . "Although the medical literature is most complete on disparities between African-Americans and whites, the report found the disparities also extended to Hispanics." Sources: Stolberg, "Minorities Get Inferior Care, Even if Insured, Study Finds," New York Times, March 21, 2002, citing Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, March 21, 2002, an examination of the studies of disparities in treatment and outcomes for minorities facing cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke, kidney disease, HIV/AIDS, asthma, diabetes, maternal and child health challenges, and mental health issues.
Overview: "Americans made advances in the 1990s against a broad range of diseases and other health threats, but glaring racial and ethnic disparities remain, the government reported yesterday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study looked at 17 key 'health indicators'--statistics on things such as infant mortality, suicide and stroke, broken down into racial and ethnic groups. For all but one of the indicators, the statistics improved for the overall U.S. population [including 9 percent drop in death rate for strokes, 15 percent for car crashes and more than 28 percent for homicides]. . . . Of more concern to health officials are lingering gaps, some of them glaring, for racial and ethnic minorities. Take breast cancer. From 1990 to 1998, the death rate fell 4 percent among black women and 13 percent among Hispanic women. For white women, the rate dropped 18 percent. Among other gaps were the rates of tuberculosis, eight times higher for blacks and six times higher for Hispanics [than for whites] . . . " Associated Press, "U.S. Health Improves, But Racial Gaps Remain," Washington Post, January 25, 2002, A8.
Childhood Traumatic Injuries: ". . . a black child is nearly twice as likely to die from an injury [as] a white child," according to a Washington Post report on a June 2001 study by the Public Health Policy Advisory Board. Likewise, "A [2005] study of nearly 6,000 children suggests that black youth are more than twice as likely to die from a traumatic injury as are white children. . . . Indeed, black children are also two to three times more likely to be admitted to the hospital because of a traumatic injury. " Groner, "Black Children More Likely to Die from a Traumatic Injury than White Children, USA," Ohio State University Medical School, Medical News Today, May 13, 2005.
Health Insurance Coverage: "Between 1987 and 1996, the large gap in health insurance coverage experienced by most minority groups
compared with white Americans remained constant and widened for Hispanic men, according to the study by Monheit and Vistnes of the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Among non-elderly American workers, employment-related insurance coverage among Hispanic men declined 13 percentage points between 1987 and 1996; the decline among Hispanic and black women was 7 percentage points, while the decline was less than 3 percentage points for white men. . . . Drs. Monheit and Vistnes also found that in 1996, Hispanic males had the largest gap of all minority groups in employment-based coverage relative to white males. . . . To narrow the gap in coverage for minorities, the authors cite the need to control health insurance costs, provide affordable insurance products, and improve minority worker skills, earnings potential, and access to jobs that provide health insurance. Their findings are based on analysis of data from two nationally representative household surveys of health care access, use, and expenditures sponsored by AHRQ: the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey and the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey."
Health Insurance Coverage: As of 1997, "Across all income levels, the vast majority of white and Asian children were privately insured, while less than half of black, Hispanic, and Native American children had private coverage. Among low-income children, 16 percent of black children were uninsured, whereas 19 percent of Asian and white children were (not a significant difference). Comparatively, 29 percent of low-income Hispanic children and 48 percent of Native American children were uninsured. Among adults, patterns of disparity across different racial and ethnic groups again emerge. The prevalence of uninsurance is much higher for black, Native American, and Hispanic adults than for whites and Asians," according to the National Survey of American Families.
Health Insurance Coverage: "Six in 10 whites--61 percent--say the average black has equal or better access to health care than the average white, according to [a 2001 Washington Post poll funded by the Kaiser Family Foundation]. In fact, blacks are far more likely to be without health insurance than whites. In 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey found that blacks were nearly twice as likely as whites to be without health insurance." Morin, "Misperceptions Cloud Whites' View of Blacks," Washington Post, July 11, 2001, A7.
Heart Disease: From 1991-95, the national death rate from heart disease was over 25% higher for African-American men than for white men (i.e., 841 per 100,000 population for African-American men, 666 per 100,000 for white men), according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and West Virginia University, Men and Heart Disease: An Atlas of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Mortality (2001), reported by Sternberg, "Race, Locale Raise Men's Heart Risk," USA Today, June 21, 2001, A1. The lead author of the study, Elizabeth Barnett, stated, "We don't think these racial or ethnic disparities are due to genetics or inborn differences. We see them reflecting defects in our society." USA Today goes on to say, "Researchers cite many reasons why some men are more likely to die of heart disease: poverty, inadequate health insurance, unequal distribution of medical services, smoking, bad diet, lack of exercise. Barnett says that depression, social isolation, job stress, racism and discrimination also play a role. . . . About 40% of the deaths in black men occur before the age of 65, compared with just 21% of heart disease deaths among whites. But race doesn't entirely explain the disparities, the study shows. For instance, in New York City, heart disease death rates were slightly higher among whites than blacks." Also heart disease death rates were significantly lower for Native Americans, Hispanic men, and Asian and Pacific Islanders than for whites.
Heart Disease: "Black heart attack patients are far less likely than whites to undergo common and potentially life-saving procedure known as cardiac catheterization, regardless of race of their doctors; finding is made by researchers at Yale University after examining hospital records of 40,000 Medicare beneficiar1es treated for heart attacks around country; analysis is in New England Journal of Medicine; authors say findings debunk notion that discrimination by white doctors against black patients is sole source of disparity." New York Times, May 10, 2001, Section A, p. 20.
Heart Disease and Cardiac Care: "Review of the Evidence. In collaboration with the American College of Cardiology Foundation, the Kaiser Family Foundation today released the report Racial/Ethnic Differences in Cardiac Care: The Weight of Evidence. The report finds that of the 81 studies investigating racial/ethnic differences in cardiac care over the past two decades, 68 find disparities in care for at least one of the racial/ethnic minority groups under study. The disparities remain even after adjusting for such factors as age, sex, insurance status, and heart disease severity." Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Media Release, "Physician Awareness of Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Medical Care Focus of New Initiative by Health Care Foundations and Heart Groups: New Report Summarizes Evidence on Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Cardiac Care; Advertising Campaign Seeks to Engage Physicians in Understanding Why," October 2002.
Homicide: African-Americans represent less than 15 percent of the U.S. population in 2000, yet "White and black persons each account for about half of all homicide victims," according to the FBI Uniform Crime Statistics
Life Expectancy: ". . . a black child born in Washington and Harlem [in the late 1990s] has a lower life expectancy than a child born in Bangladesh," according to Robert Woodson, National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, in his 1997 discussion of the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation report.
Mental Health: "Despite progress in treating mental illness, afflicted members of racial and ethnic minority groups are more likely to receive inadequate treatment or none compared to whites, according to a U.S. Surgeon General's report issued [August 26, 2001] that calls on health officials and local governments to close the health gap. The report is the first from the nation's top doctor that exclusively addresses the disproportionate burden of mental illnesses shouldered by blacks, Latinos, American Indians, Alaskan Natives, Asian-Americans, and Pacific Islanders. It says mental disorders take a heavier toll on members of such communities, causing needless misery and often disrupting already precarious lives. Among the reasons cited for the pervasive undertreatment of minorities are poverty, lack of health insurance coverage, biases among health workers and sometimes cultural stigmas against acknowledging [mental] disorders." From Los Angeles Times, "Mental Illness Toll Greater on Minorities: Poverty a Factor in Undertreatment," The Honolulu Advertiser, August 27, 2001, A1, A7.
Overall Health Status: "Hispanic adults were by far the most likely to be in fair or poor health. Racial and ethnic disparities in health status persisted across both low- and higher-income groups. Low-income Hispanic adults in particular were most likely to report being in fair or poor health (33 percent), and this rate was significantly different from that of any other racial/ethnic group. In comparison, 23 percent of blacks and 20 percent of Native Americans and whites in the low-income bracket reported fair or poor health status." See The Urban Institute's National Survey of American Families.
Safety in schools: According to a public opinion survey commissioned by Parade Magazine, only "54 percent of the respondents with school-age children [said yes, when asked "Are our schools safe?"] More white (58%) than black (42%) or Hispanic (27%) parents told us thy feel their children are safe at school . . . " Hales, "What Americans Think About Our Justice System," Parade Magazine, February 10, 2002, p. 13.

Housing, Mortgage Lending, Home Ownership

Disparities in Cost of Mortgages: "Blacks and Hispanics are getting a disproportionate share of high-cost mortgages compared with whites, according to new federal figures released yesterday. The analysis of 2004 home lending [by the Federal Reserve] shows that even after adjusting for factors such as income level, loan size and property location that could raise the interest rate offered on a mortgage, blacks are still nearly twice as likely as whites to be given a high-cost loan. . . . [When data are adjusted to reflect these factors] about 16 percent of blacks and 12 percent of Hispanics received high-priced loans, compared with 9 percent in the white control group." Fleishman, "Minorities Often Pay More for Mortgages," Washington Post, D1, D12, September 14, 2005.
Disparities in Cost of Mortgages: "A racial disparity in mortgage lending rates appears to be sharper in Los Angeles and other California metropolitan areas than the rest of the country, according to an analysis of federal data to be released today. The study by the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now, an advocacy group for the poor, [found that residents] of predominantly minority districts in the Los Angeles metro area were more than nine times more likely to get high cost-loans to refinance their homes than residents of predominantly white communities -- the largest gap, proportionately, in all of the 125 metropolitan areas studied. Nationally, residents of minority communities were 1.7 times more likely to have such loans than borrowers in nearby white neighborhoods. The metro areas surrounding Oakland and Santa Ana followed Los Angeles in the disparity ratio, with San Francisco at No. 5 and San Hose at No. 6." The article reported disparity rates of 5.6 times greater likelihood of higher cost loans for minority residents of Bridgeport, Stamford, and Norwalk, CT of Peterson; and 4.7 times for minority residents of Albuquerque, and 4.3 times for minority residents of Austin and Round Rock, TX. Peterson, "Racial Gap in Loans Is High in State," Los Angeles Times, September 29, 2005, C1.
Disparities in Mortgage Lending: "African-American and Hispanic applicants for conventional home mortgages are rejected at rates greater than twice that of white applicants (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 1999). . . . After controlling for measures of creditworthiness, data compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston revealed large differences in loan denial rates between minority and white applicants. Hispanic and African-American applicants faced an 80 percent greater likelihood of loan denial. The Urban Institute reanalyzed these data and replicated the finding that creditworthiness or technical factors could not explain the disparity. . . . (Turner & Skidmore, 1999)." Institute of Medicine, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care (2002), p. 76.

Disparities and Discrimination in Rental Housing: A 1995 study by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development of twenty audit sites around the U.S. found that "white auditors were provided with 45% percent more housing options in the rental market . . . than black auditors. . . . For Hispanics, the likelihood of discriminatory treatment was equally high, as Hispanic auditors faced unfavorable treatment 43% of the time when seeking rental units [according to a 1993 study]. . . . White auditors . . . were offered more favorable terms in 17 percent of rental transactions." Id., p. 77.
Home Loan Interest Rates: "A far greater share of black and Hispanic homeowners with above-average incomes still have mortgages with higher interest rates than whites with comparable incomes, according to a study to be released today. . . . In its most surprising finding, the study said that the racial disparities increased as homeowners' salaries rose. Among households that made at least 120 percent of the typical income in their metropolitan area, 32 percent of blacks held high-interest, or subprime, loans while only 11 percent of whites did. Among households that made 80 percent or less of the typical local salary, 56 percent of blacks had subprime loans and 25 percent of whites did. . . . St. Louis had the biggest disparity between the percentage of upper-income blacks and upper-income whites who held subprime loans, according to the study. About one of every 20 affluent whites who took out a second mortgage in 2000 received a subprime loan. For blacks, the comparable figures were one in three. . . . St. Louis was followed by Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans and Indianapolis. New York ranked 24th out of 331 metropolitan areas. The disparity between Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites was greatest in Western cities with large Spanish-speaking populations. These include Tucson, Ariz., and Salinas, San Francisco and San Jose in California. New York ranked 13th. . . . The study's authors acknowledged that their findings did not prove that minority borrowers unfairly pay high mortgage rates, because applicants' credit histories were not considered. But the authors said the gaps between subprime lending to whites and minority borrowers were probably too big to reflect only credit differences." Leonhart, "Wide Racial Disparities Found in Costs of Mortgages," New York Times, May 1, 2002.
Home Ownership: According to Fannie Mae Corporation, over 2/3 of the American public now owns their own homes, but only 49% of minority group members are home owners.
Housing Hardship: "To measure housing hardship, adults were asked whether they had been unable to pay rent, mortgage, or utility bills in
the previous year. Thirteen percent of all non-elderly persons lived in families that reported housing hardship during that year. . . . Across all income levels, the bimodal pattern of well-being by ethnic group was again apparent [in 1996], since rates of housing hardship for blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans were twice as high as those for Asians and whites." National Survey of American Families. By 2001, "Blacks were [still] twice as likely to have reported having difficulties recently paying their rent or mortgage payments. . ." Morin, op cit., A7.

Justice

See . . . And Justice for All?

Social Services

Kovaleski & Chan, "District Finds Bias Against Hispanics: Man Thrown Out of Shelter Died," Washington Post, July 22, 2001, A1, A12:

"Two witnesses saw a Salvadoran immigrant evicted from the District's primary shelter for homeless Hispanic men hours before he died in the cold last winter, according to a District government investigation that also showed Hispanic clients have regularly been given less access to services and bias provisions at the facility in Northwest Washington." (A1)
"'It is more probable than not that La Casa Shelter has discriminated against Latino clients in terms of providing these individuals with equal access to food, blankets, and other necessary provisions,' said the Office of Human Rights, in one of three reports by city agencies. . . . Latinos were treated more strictly than blacks with respect to La Casa's policies on drinking and drug use on the premises, investigators found." (A1, A12)
The Office of Human Rights found that language barriers can account for the discrimination against Latinos, and both it and Human Services concluded that there was no evidence of discriminatory intent. . . . The reports . . . recommended that the shelter improve staff training and that the city's Office of Latino Affairs convene a summit to examine deficiencies in service to homeless Hispanics." (A12)

Treatment as a Customer

According to a 2001 survey by the Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University, "Nearly half -- 46 percent of all blacks said they had experienced discrimination in the past 10 years, including 55 percent of black men . . . Four in 10 Latinos and Asians reported that they, too, had been discriminated against in the past 10 years." Among black Americans, 69 percent responded that they "are treated with less respect than other people" at least "once in a while" and for 17 percent "very or fairly often." Similarly, 70 percent of black interviewees said that they "receive poorer service than other people at restaurants or stores" at least once in a while. 53 percent of Hispanics also answered yes to the first of these queries, and 43 percent reported poorer service in restaurants or stores." Morin and Cottman, "Discrimination's Lingering Sting: Minorities Tell of Profiling, Other Bias," Washington Post, June 22, 2001, A1, A16.
Allegations of racial discrimination in public accommodations continue to be filed almost 40 years after enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. See, for example, Liu, "Lawsuit Accuses Theme Park of Discrimination," Los Angeles Times, August 29, 2001, B4. This class action lawsuit alleges that Six Flags Magic Mountain Theme Park "illegally discriminated against more than 4,000 black patrons, including a former Olympic bronze medallist."

Voting

Florida: "An examination of 175,010 Florida ballots that were not counted in the 2000 presidential election provided further evidence that the ballots of voters in the state's black neighborhoods were most likely to go uncounted last November. . . . Overall, 136 out of every 1,000 ballots in heavily black precincts were set aside--a rate of spoiled ballots that was three times higher than in predominantly white precincts. Those precincts were at least 80 percent of the voters were white, had 45 out of 1,000 ballots disqualified. The difference in spoiled ballots between white and black voters was greatest in some counties that use paper ballots marked with a pencil and read by optical scanning machines. In those 'optical scan' counties that transport ballots to the county seat to be tallied, black voters were almost four times as likely as whites to have cast ballots where no votes were counted. The rate of spoiled votes was much lower in the state's 26 optical scan counties where the ballots are tallied at the polling places, and voters who make an error in filling out the ballot are alerted and allowed to revote. . . . [This] technology reduced the difference in spoilage rates by more than half. . . . The ballot study suggested that black voters stand the most to gain from election reforms in Florida and other states that required polling places to install 'second chance' technology. . . . Thousands of Florida voters using optical-scan technology created overvotes by marking the oval next to a candidate, then filling the oval next to 'write in' and writing the same candidate's name, called a 'double-bubble.' The Post ballot review found that Gore could have had a net gain of 662 votes in a hand recount of optical overvotes, almost entirely because of those double-bubbles." Keating and Mintz, "Florida Black Ballots Affected Most in 2000: Uncounted Votes Common, Survey Finds," Washington Post, November 13, 2001, A3-A4.
The Nation: "Voters in congressional districts with low incomes and high percentages of minorities were far more likely to see their ballots discarded in last year's presidential election than voters in wealthier districts with fewer minorities. But modern voting machines can significantly reduce the disparity, according to a national study of the 2000 elections [prepared by the minority staff of the House Governmental Reform Committee]." Balz, "Study Finds National Voting Disparity: Higher Error Rate Found in Low-Income, Minority Areas; Upgraded Machines Would Help, Review Says," Washington Post, July 9, 2001, A3.
"The study examined results in 40 congressional districts in 20 states. Half of the districts were in low-income areas with high percentages of minority voters. The other half were in low-income areas with high percentages of minority voters. The other half were in more affluent areas with relatively few minorities. No more than two congressional districts were included from any state." Id.
"Overall, the study found that 4 percent of all ballots cast in the low-income districts were not tallied for the presidential race, compared with 1.2 percent in the higher-income districts. In two low-income districts, about 1 in 12 ballots--7.9 percent--was not counted in the presidential race, while the lowest error in one of the more affluent districts was 0.4 percent." Id.
"Most of the districts with low rates of uncounted ballots were the areas of greater affluence and with smaller percentages of minorities. But not in all cases. The 7th District in Alabama, were 68 percent of the residents are minorities and 31 percent have incomes below the poverty line, had the lowest undercount rate, with 0.3 percent. The district, stretching from Birmingham to Montgomery along the western part of the state, used optical scan machines and counts ballots at the precinct, a system that allows voters to correct mistakes before they leave the polling place. In another low-income, minority district -- Louisiana's 2nd District, which includes New Orleans -- voters use electronic voting machines that will not allow multiple votes for president and alert voters if they have not recorded a vote in a particular race. Using this technology, the voters in the district had a discard rate of 0.5 percent." Id.
"Overall, the study found that the disparities between undercounts in low-income and in more affluent districts were reduced with better technology. For example, where punch-card machines were used, the error rate in the low-income districts was 7.7 percent compared with 2 percent in the more affluent districts, a gap of 5.7 percent points." Id.
"When optical scan machines were used and counted in the precincts, the error rate was 1.1 percent in the low-income districts and 0.5 percent in the affluent districts, a difference of 0.6 percentage points." Id.
California: In California, as in several other states, lawsuits have been filed alleging that "a disproportionate number of votes in some counties" including Los Angeles are not counted because of antiquated pre-scored punch card voting machines and that "a disproportionate number of African American, Latino and Asian American voters do not have their votes counted at all" because of these malfunctioning machines. Weinstein, "Trial Set for Suit on Voting Machines," Los Angeles Times, August 29, 2001, B8.
Virginia: The chief judge of the Salem Circuit Court "struck down the [Virginia] General Assembly's 2001 redistricting plan as unconstitutional . . . [finding that it evidenced] 'racial gerrymandering' . . . [such that] African Americans were unfairly packed together to confine their voting strength to the smallest possible number of districts." Melton, "Va. Judge Invalidates Legislative Districts," Washington Post, March 12, 2002, A1. For further information on this decision, see Masters, "Minority 'Packing' At Heart of Ruling On Redistricting: Precincts Linked Unfairly, Judge Found," Washington Post, March 13, 2002, B4: "Pattisal has found that stringing together barely touching precincts from several counties and cities to create a super-majority of minority voters unfairly reduces black influence in the surrounding districts." Quoting from the decision with respect to District 49: "There is no doubt that race and, more precisely, ethnicity were factors in creation of this district . . ." With respect to District 74: "Its appearance is like that of an axe. It has a cutting blade (Charles City County), a long handle (eastern Henrico County), and the grip (the north-eastern suburbs of the City of Richmond) . . . . This bizarre looking district is the least compact House district in the state. . . . After carefully reviewing the evidence, the Court finds that District 74 fails to adhere to the 'contiguous and compact' requirements of Article II, Section 6 [of the Virginia State Constitution]."

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