General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsInstitutional racism has been pretty much eliminated outside the deep south, right?
http://m.host.madison.com/ct/news/local/writers/mike_ivey/no-state-worse-than-wisconsin-for-black-children-says-new/article_7ec1a1fc-b923-11e3-828c-0019bb2963f4.htmlA new national report shows that children of color face enormous barriers to educational and financial achievement with Wisconsin ranking last in the disparity between white children and their non-white peers. White children growing up in Wisconsin ranked 10th among the states in an index measuring 12 key indicators at various stages of life, including home situation, educational skills and income.
But Wisconsin ranks 50th for black children, 37th for Asian children and 17th for Latino children, according to the study from the Annie E. Casey Foundation titled Race for Results: Building a Path to Opportunity for All Children. Wisconsin ranks with Michigan and Mississippi for the worst record on African-American achievement.
...
The Casey report found that 70 percent of Wisconsins white children live in households with incomes above 200 percent of the poverty level, about $47,700 annually for a family of four. At the same time, only 20 percent of black children have that level of economic security. For Latino and Native American kids in Wisconsin, about a third come from households above the 200 percent of the poverty level. On higher education, white adults ages 25 to 29 in Wisconsin are three times as likely to have an associates degree or higher than their African-American or Latino peers.
And among middle school students, white kids are six times more likely to be proficient in 8th grade math than black students.
The Casey study emphasizes the need to address the issue now since minorities will represent a majority of the nations children by 2018. The report notes that children raised in economically challenged households and communities face tremendous challenges from day one.
My state sucks so badly sometimes it makes me sick.
iemitsu
(3,888 posts)It is so interwoven into the fabric of daily life that it is often not visible to the naked eye.
So in our "post-racial" society, we understand that lack of achievement is due to lack of effort or a lack of will, or both, and we can't see that what is distracting the under-achiever is that invisible thread, stitching the label to the shirt, poking constantly at the nape of his/her neck.
I can personally attest to the toll, in wasted time and effort and in other's perceptions of how I use my time and effort, exacted in searching for that illusive thread.
CountAllVotes
(20,878 posts)n/t
& recommend!
It's a sore point where I'm from...
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)with all the work to bring the South up to speed, places like Wisconsin were ignored and allowed to sit back and pretend to be the good guys.
None of us are good guys in this-- racism is a basic human instinct coming from an historic fear of strangers and we have to fight it until that instinct is dead.
Every so often I spend some time at the Slave Cemetery in Orient New York. Yeah, Long Island had slaves. Most were buried in unmarked graves but this one owner had some sort of respect for his and thought they should have a proper burial. Had himself and his wife buried there, too. Various parts of NY and NJ, though, occasionally see bones dug up during construction projects, and often the assumption is slave burials.
It's not just your state, it's a human problem we have to accept and deal with.
(OK, fat chance of that.)
Scuba
(53,475 posts)TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)maybe most, but we do have an innate suspicion of strangers, which is at the root of it. Why else would it be so easy to teach?
I get the point of the picture of the kids, but they are part of a group that doesn't identify itself by color.