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Is Racism Increasing?

Katrina revealed a black population marooned in third-world poverty, lacking work, education and health care. My niece volunteers in a clinic in New Orleans Algiers district, which didn’t flood. She cares for adults, chronically ill with diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, or emphysema-who have never previously seen a doctor. (See www.commongroundrelief.org.)

Last week the New York Times reported:

“The share of young black men [ages 22-30] without jobs has climbed relentlessly, with only a slight pause during the economic peak of the late 1990’s. In 2000, 65 percent of black male high school dropouts in their 20’s were jobless – that is, unable to find work, not seeking it or incarcerated. By 2004, the share had grown to 72 percent, compared with 34 percent of white and 19 percent of Hispanic dropouts. Even when high school graduates were included, half of black men in their 20’s were jobless in 2004, up from 46 percent in 2000.

“Incarceration rates climbed in the 1990’s and reached historic highs in the past few years. In 1995, 16 percent of black men in their 20’s who did not attend college were in jail or prison; by 2004, 21 percent were incarcerated. By their mid-30’s, 6 in 10 black men who had dropped out of school had spent time in prison.

“In the inner cities, more than half of all black men do not finish high school.” (NYT 2006/03/20, “Plight Deepens for Black Men, Studies Warn,” by Erik Ekholm.)

The US has the developed world’s highest incarceration rate. We sentence men (and women) to ever longer terms, for offenses like drug possession that would not merit prison or even arrest in other western societies. Arrest, prosecution and sentencing are racially biased. In many states by law or practice, ex-felons cannot vote. (See www.sentencingproject.org.) States increasingly impose court costs on ex-convicts. In consequence, some defendants may plead guilty just to avoid debt, and parolees may be reincarcerated for falling behind on payments. (NYT 2006/02/23, “Debt to Society Is Least of Costs for Ex-Convicts,” by Adam Liptak)

Meanwhile, Jonathan Kozol has just published The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. “It’s not simply that segregation has returned with a vengeance to public education; it’s worse than it’s been at any time since 1968.” (Interview in Extra! March/April 2006, www.fair.org).

Increasing Racism? Or maybe a consequence of growing inequality of wealth and income-driven by a system of taxes, subsidies and regulation that directs resources to the top. The system varies from state to state; it’s no coincidence that the black poverty trap of New Orleans lies in Louisiana, which vies with Mississippi for most unequal state.

Growing inequality drives growing housing segregation by wealth and class, followed by growing psychological segregation. It reduces empathy between classes. It makes it easier for officials to withdraw services from poorer neighborhoods, and easier for employers to hire their own kind. It leaves the cities’ young black men isolated and bitter.

To fight racism, we must also challenge the rigged system that has now pushed wealth inequality back up to levels last seen in 1929.

Coming in May from United for a Fair Economy, www.faireconomy.org, The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide.


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