The National Urban League
Executive Summary
State of Black America® 2009
Message to the President
With the 2009 Equality Index™Executive SummaryAt the dawn of Barack Obama’s historic presidency, the National Urban League’s The State of Black America 2009 examines the critical challenges —such as unemployment, home foreclosures, education and health care reform — his new administration must address. With a Foreword by Martin Luther King III, this volume – the 33rd edition - features essays and commentaries by leading scholars, analysts and practitioners, as well as ordinary citizens and offers its specific recommendations for effectively tackling these issues
The 2009 Equality Index™
As the Obama Administration ushers in a new era of hope, change, and to some extent, unity for this nation, many are asking whether racial barriers have now been erased in America. Are discrimination, division and inequality antiquated relics of the past? For a quick answer to that question, one has but to review some of the sobering statistics presented in the 2009 Equality Index. Ironically, even as an African-American man holds the highest office the country, African Americans remain twice as likely as whites to be unemployed, three times more likely to live in poverty and more than six times as likely to be incarcerated.The 2009 Equality Index stands at 71.1% compared to a revised 2008 index of 71.5%. Relative to 2008, the change in this year’s overall index was marginal, indicating a general continuation of the status quo. Economics remains the area with the greatest degree of inequality (from 57.6% in 2008 to 57.4% in 2009), followed by social justice (from 62.1% to 60.4%), health (from 73.3% to 74.4%), education (from 78.6% to 78.5%) and civic engagement (from 100.3% to 96.3%).
This year we also offer an analysis of some key economic statistics from the Equality Index – median household income, the poverty rate, the unemployment rate and the homeownership rate -- to compare the relative “success” of the two most recent economic expansions. The analysis shows that while important gains were made, both for blacks and whites, in each of these areas during the 1990s expansion, there was actually a loss of ground in median household income, poverty and homeownership during the 2001-2007 expansion, known as the jobless recovery.Finally, this year’s Equality Index provides an opportunity to examine observed trends in the indices of key indicators from four of the sub-sections of the index – economics, health, education and social justice – between the 2005 and 2009 Equality Index.Results were mixed in economics, with two indices showing a decline (poverty rate – from 42% to 33%; homeownership rate – from 64% to 63%) and two others showing improvement (median household income – from 61% to 65%; unemployment rate – from 43% to 51%).In education, attainment and enrollment data suggest that although achievement in these areas is similar for blacks and whites, over the observed period, there has been a growing, rather than a diminishing, gap.There were some improvements in the health insurance gap overall (2 percentage points) and for children (3 percentage points) with the most ground being made among uninsured African American children who went from almost 14 percent to 12 percent.Under the heading of social justice, the incarceration rate declined for both whites and African Americans, resulting in a 3 percentage point increase in the incarceration rate index. A decline in prisoners as a percentage of arrests for African Americans (-1.7 percentage points) also contributed to a 3 percentage point increase in the index for this variable.
Full Executive Summary: http://www.nul.org/thestateofblackamerica.html
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