Today, the National Urban League released its annual report on the State of Black America & its findings are grim.
While Black people have made economic and health gains, they’ve slipped further behind whites in education, social justice and civic engagement since the index was launched in 2005. The compendium of average outcomes by race in many aspects of life shows just how hard it is for people of color to overcome systemic racism, the civil rights organization says.
Voting restrictions, medical treatment, and housing inequality are just a few issues adversely hurting Black Americans. According to Axios, the 46th edition of the National Urban League’s “State of Black America” report strives to show voter suppression, and growing income inequality will “precipitate the collapse of democracy in the U.S” according to Axios.
- median household income for Black people is 37% less than that of white people
- Black couples are more than twice as likely as whites to be denied a mortgage or a home improvement loan (“In that area of wealth, we’ve seen almost no change, none, since the civil rights days,” Morial said. “The wealth disparity has gotten wider.”)
- Life expectancy has declined and lifelong inequities loom: Black women are 59% more likely to die as a result of bearing a child, and 31% more likely to die of breast cancer. Black men are 52% more likely to die of prostate cancer.
- Black people have been more than twice as likely as white people to experience threats or uses of force during police encounters, and three times more likely to be jailed if arrested. In 2020, they were 93% more likely to be victims of hate crimes.
- Education gaps abound
This year’s Equality Index shows Black people still get only 73.9 percent of the American pie white people enjoy.
