The State of Opportunity

Framing the Immigration Debate

• The ImmigrationProf Blog has revisited a 2006 essay by George Lakoff and Sam Ferguson about the language we use when discussing immigration.  Here's the abstract on the Rockridge Institute's website:

"Framing is at the center of the recent immigration debate. Simply framing it as about “immigration” has shaped its politics, defining what count as “problems” and constraining the debate to a narrow set of issues. The language is telling. The linguistic framing is remarkable: frames for illegal immigrant, illegal alien, illegals, undocumented workers, undocumented immigrants, guest workers, temporary workers, amnesty, and border security. These linguistic expressions are anything but neutral. Each framing defines the problem in its own way, and hence constrains the solutions needed to address that problem. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we will analyze the framing used in the public debate. Second, we suggest some alternative framing to highlight important concerns left out of the current debate. Our point is to show that the relevant issues go far beyond what is being discussed, and that acceptance of the current framing impoverishes the discussion."

• In other immigration news, Burger King is under fire for its refusal to join McDonald's and Taco Bell in an agreement to pay historically-underpaid migrant workers in Florida an extra penny per pound of tomatoes picked. Also, a federal court in Canada ruled in favor of a lawsuit challenging the Safe Third Country Agreement, which had designated the US as a "safe third country" for asylum-seekers, meaning "if they make it to the U.S. before entering Canada can be returned there."  The court found that "the United States fails to comply with Convention on Torture or Article 33 of the Refugee Convention and [therefore] the U.S./Canada safe third country agreement was flawed as there was no ongoing meaningful review mechanism."

• The DMI Blog points to this week's New York Times coverage of the successes of a re-entry program in Brooklyn which offers counseling, drug testing, and work and training programs to former inmates.  Re-entry programs not only support the value of redemption, or the right to a second chance, but they are also effective in helping people reintegrate into the community and remain there.  According to a recent study of the comAlert program,

"ComAlert graduates are less likely be re-arrested after leaving prison and much more likely to be employed than either program dropouts or members of the control group. Participants who complete the Doe Fund work-training component do even better. They have an employment rate of about 90 percent, somewhat higher than the ComAlert graduates generally and several times higher than the control group."

• Finally, Jack and Jill Politics offers further analysis of inequities in Wednesday's CNN/YouTube Republican debate, as compared with its Democratic counterpart:

Of 34 total questions aired, 24 were from white men (including 2 cartoon versions) in the GOP debate. That's 71%. For the Dem debate, counting was a little more challenging since one video aired combined video submissions from several people. Still I'd estimate 22 of 38 questions aired were from white men (I did not count the snowman as white because snow does not have an ethnicity) or 58%.

Further, there were 8 questions shown that featured African-Americans during the Democratic debate and a measly 2 in the GOP debate. Hmm.

Also, strikingly -- astonishingly, no questions whatsoever during the GOP debate on:

Healthcare in America
Katrina
Climate Change or Environment
Darfur
Iraq Troop Withdrawal
Afghanistan and Pakistan -- Resurgence of the Taliban
Racial Profiling
Voting Machines and Voting Rights
The Failure to Capture Osama bin Laden

Writers Guild Fighting for Fair Pay While TV Networks Threaten To Cut Jobs

• There has been a lot of discussion on The Huffington Post about the Writers Guild of America strike that started on Monday, as TV networks and screenwriters failed to reach an agreement before the end of their previous contract. Union members are essentially demanding that networks begin to distribute profits from new media airings of their work, but have made little headway in negotiations on the issue. In a move that will endanger the financial security of many Americans, some networks are now threatening large-scale firings of their employees. According to an opinion in the LA Times:

"A day after Hollywood's writers went out on strike, the major studios are hitting back with plans to suspend scores of long-term deals with television production companies, jeopardizing the jobs of hundreds of rank-and-file employees whose names never appear in the credits.

Assistants, development executives and production managers will soon be out of work, joining their better-paid bosses who opted to sacrifice paychecks as members of the Writers Guild of America. At some studios, the first wave of letters are going out today, hitting writer-producers whose companies don't currently have shows in production."

• Migra Matters has done an interesting post on the results of yesterday's election in Virginia, where the Republican party had chosen to make an immigration crackdown its biggest campaign selling point.  Curiously, the Democrats appear to have gained control of the state Senate, leading the author to advise us with respect to upcoming national elections: "If the Republicans were looking at immigrant-bashing as a silver bullet to stem the national tide against them, surely tonight's results in Virginia will should give them second thoughts."

• The House of Representatives has begun debate on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a measure to extend federal workplace protections to those targeted for their sexual orientation.  Pam's House Blend discusses the fact that a coalition of civil and gay rights organizations announced their support yesterday for the current version of the bill which does not include the same protections for transgender individuals, thus leaving the LGBT community divided.

• The Sentencing Law and Policy blog featured an editorial in today's New York Times about the Second Chance Act, a bill which has had bipartisan support in Congress since 2004 but has yet to move through the legislature. The Times describes the need for the government policies to support redemption, or the idea that we all deserve a second chance:

"If past patterns hold true, more than half of the 650,000 prisoners released this year will be back behind bars by 2010. With the prison population exploding and the price of incarceration now topping $60 billion a year, states are rightly focusing on ways to reduce recidivism. Congress can give these efforts a boost by passing the Second Chance Act, which would provide crucial help to people who have paid their debts to society....

The Second Chance Act would add to what the country knows about the re-entry process by establishing a federal re-entry task force, along with a national resource center to collect and disseminate information about proven programs....  The programs necessary to help former prisoners find a place in society do not exist in most communities. The Second Chance Act would help to create those programs by providing money, training, technical assistance — and a Congressional stamp of approval."

• Last up, blogger Sudy is working on a video project to "feature, support, and highlight the work done by feminists of color."  She's included a preview of the video on her site which has been cross-posted by Vox et Machina.

Human Rights and New Media in America

• The ImmigrationProf Blog has written a post featuring the new Guantánamo Testimonials Project, a project of the University of California, Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas (CSHRA). The goal of the project is to collect and make available testimonies of detainees' experiences at Guantánamo and includes statements by "prisoners, FBI Agents, interrogators, prosecution and defense lawyers, military physicians, a chaplain, a marine, a CIA asset, and others. "

• Yesterday saw an article in The Huffington Post entitled Dangerous Toys are a Human Rights Issue.  Author David Nassar discusses the connections between this controversial issue and a lack of protections for workers:

"These dangerous toys aren't putting just our children at risk: they also endanger the lives of the factory workers who make them.

The same forces that make manufacturers cut corners on paint and plastic also make manufacturers cut corners on labor costs. Working long hours in appalling conditions - often with toxic chemicals and no protection - laborers in China bear the true cost of America's low price toys. Stores like Wal-Mart demand bottom dollar costs, but the costs come back not only to us and our children, but to entire communities overseas. Today's news stories regarding children making clothing for the Gap, Inc. in India's factories are another harsh reminder of that truth.

Last week's Congressional hearing on toy safety and working conditions in China's factories highlighted the fact that without ensuring the safety of employees in supplier factories, it is challenging at best to ensure the safety of the products that come out of those factories and ultimately the safety of our children."

• Regarding education policy, the last few days have seen discussion of high schools functioning as 'dropout factories' (with one in ten American high schools seeing less than 60% of their original class finishing school) and the importance of the federal Head Start preschool program in increasing graduation rates (while also cutting crime rates). Others have discussed new legislation to help control college costs for American youth, while high-achieving immigrants in favor of the DREAM Act have expressed worries such as "I always worried that immigration (officers) would come if I didn't excel." It is important to continue these dialogues concerning the human rights issues of where we as a nation can do better in ensuring that our young people have the opportunities they need to achieve their full potential.


• Finally, the DMI Blog has posted on an innovative new media project of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, their just-launched website TheMiddleClass.org. The website is meant to function as "a dynamic site that will update throughout the year as members of Congress vote on legislation of significance to the current and aspiring middle class." Speaking of its democratizing role of holding politicians accountable to the voice of their constituents by reporting on legislation in an interactive fashion, the site says:

"For each bill, we begin with a brief description of the legislation, information about its status in the legislative process, and an analysis of its impact on the middle class. But themiddleclass.org also provides more extensive context: you’ll find informative online video about each piece of legislation, quotations from experts speaking out on the issue, and hard-hitting numbers from DMI’s Injustice Index. We look beyond the bill to what more could be done to address the issues as stake. And we provide links to further resources.

We also provide information on how each member of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives voted on the legislation. You can look at how every member voted on a particular bill, or how your own representative voted. You can search for legislation by issue area or keyword and look for legislators by name, state, or entering your zip code. And you can check out the grades we assign each member of Congress based on their votes."

I'm Not Racist, But You Probably Are

A few quick hits from around the blogosphere today:

• Race and Media reports on some new Zogby polling data about American's racial prejudices.  Apparently we tend to think that we're not racist, but those other folks over there probably are:

The “Report Card on American Prejudice” is described as part of a wide-ranging effort by the Game Show Network, sponsors of the poll and of a new television show, “Without Prejudice,” to spur a national dialogue on intolerance and bigotry.

The poll showed: While 67 percent of respondents claimed to have no preference themselves between a white, black or Arab clerk in a convenience store, 71 percent said, “most Americans” would seek out the white clerk. Just 1 percent said Americans’ first choice would be to approach a black clerk, while less than 0.5 percent said the same for an Arab clerk.

And yet, 55 percent of respondents said race relations have improved over the past 10 years.

• Looks like health insurers are getting ready to exploit undocumented immigrants under the guise of providing health services (aka tapping an underutilized market).  In some respects this could be a good thing, but the potential for exploitation is really high - particularly when you factor in language difficulties and a general unfamiliarity with the American health care system.  On the other hand, could this also be a potential ally in future immigration battles?  If SEIU can team up with WalMart, anything is possible.  Or am I being naive?
• The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act passed in the House of Representatives.  The bill will "return the industry to the longstanding “paycheck accrual” rule, and allow a pay discrimination action to accrue every time the employee receives a paycheck that is affected by a discriminatory action."  A similar bill is now in the Senate.

Race, Opportunity, and the YouTube/CNN Debate

Written and researched with (great) help from Amanda Ogus. Cross posted at Daily Kos.

Monday night’s YouTube debate gave the “average Joes” of America the chance to ask the Democratic presidential candidates their own personal questions.  Between the filter of CNN’s production team, who chose which videos would air, and the stump speeches that still weeded their way into many candidates’ discourse, the debate was not as natural as it could have been, but still offered a new way for Americans to have their voices heard. 

So, how did CNN do in picking questions that deal with the tricky topic of race, and how did the candidates do in answering them?  This is important.  As some have noted, the video submissions were dominated by white men – a demographic not representative of the diversity of America.  Whatever the reason – be it lack of broadband access or lack of savvy when it comes to New Media – CNN clearly made an effort to rectify that imbalance through their selection of questioners who were of color and questioners who  asked pertinent questions about race in America. 

Yet still, there were a lot of lost opportunities.  No one addressed the issue of racial disparities in health care, or recognized that equal access (through whatever insurance or universal health plan) does not necessarily guarantee equal treatment. Much more could have been said about equal access to and quality of education - especially in light of the recent school cases.  Next to nothing was said about comprehensive immigration reform.

Overall, we give CNN a "B."  They clearly tried to showcase diverse voices - especially tricky given the racial and gender imbalance in the questions submitted - yet they still failed to adequately address many topics.

 

In this post, we’ve compiled those questions, as well as evaluated the responses from the top tier candidates - Obama, Clinton, Edwards, and Richardson.  Check out the full transcript on CNN, and the video coverage on YouTube.  For a comprehensive summary of media responses on the debates, check out Jack Muse’s coverage on Huffington Post.

Question 6

Edwards: Immediately answering “no”, Edwards explained that he would pursue other goals to create more equality, citing a recent study that in Charleston, black people were paying more than white people for mortgages at a higher rate, even when taking income into account.  Edwards reiterated that to have true equality means fighting the big companies: “we can’t trade our insiders for their insiders…what we need is someone who will take these people on…That’s the only way we’re going to bring about change.” 

Obama: Responded to the question by choosing to focus on education, also focusing on South Carolina by profiling a low-income school in Florence, SC.  Focusing on education, Obama said, is “the kind of reparations that are really going to make a difference in America right now.”

Question 7

Richardson:  Richardson explained that in a future crisis, the government should work to “eliminate…any red tape” and “let those who live there come back first, instead of big moneyed interests.”  While he didn’t respond directly to the “race” aspect of the question posed, he did express his disagreement to the way the administration reacted.

It should be noted that during this question, Senator Dodd spoke eloquently about economic opportunity in the Gulf in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Question 8

Obama: Used this opportunity to explain how “race permeates our society.”  He details the failures of the government in denying programs to overcome the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, and said that as president, “my commitment on issues like health care is to close the disparities and the gaps, because that’s what’s really going to solve the race problem in this country.”  Obama’s comments were the only mention of racial disparities in any candidates’ answer, and put a strong emphasis on the fact that racism still exists in many parts of society.  Trying to force “colorblind” legislation is ignoring these disparities, and only perpetuating further inequalities. 

Clinton: Maintained that the (presidential) race should not be about Obama’s race or her gender, but about “what is best for you and your family.”

Question 9

In a question from the Reverend Reggie Longcrier, the candidates - particularly John Edwards were asked about religion as a weapon for discrimination - particularly as a justification for slavery in the past and a tool to rob GLBT people of their civil liberties today. 

Edwards: spoke in favor of equal rights and civil rights and his determination not to let his own faith beliefs - which are not in favor of gay marriage - to dictate public policy and limit the rights of American citizens.

Obama: Spoke about equality before the state in terms of marriage and the civil rights it confers, but wants to leave actual determinations about marriage up to individual religious denominations.

Question 27

Richardson: Makes a brief mention of suppression of minority voters by the Republican Party.  No other candidate is allowed to respond.

Question 28

No one specifically mentions people of color, but this question on the minimum wage touches on themes of economic mobility and security, and is highly relevant to millions of low-income families and people of color.

Obama: He's really the only one who hits this out of the park, noting that it's almost the wrong question.  Presidential candidates tend to be rich.  They can afford to work for the minimum wage.  It's everyday people who need to be given a living wage.

Question 34

This question asks whether the candidate's health care plans would cover undocumented workers.  Only Dodd and Richardson are allowed to answer, and, while both answer yes, this was mostly a lost opportunity for a substantive discussion about two of the most important and hot issues facing our nation.

Without Prejudice: Entirely too much prejudice?

• Racialicious reports on a new game, “Without Prejudice”, in which five judges must decide which contestant deserves a $25,000 prize. Hosted by psychotherapist Robi Ludwig and working with partners like GLAAD and National Council of La Raza, “Without Prejudice” asks the five contestants to be honest about their lives and the judges must narrow down these contestants based on any reason. The show hope to teach viewers about prejudice, and the affiliated website features a number of educational resources on the subject.  There are also discussion guides for starting conversations about prejudice. After the pilot episode premiered last night, The New York Times reports that the show is anything but “without prejudice": each participant seems to have his own biases that are hard to miss. Check it out for yourself on Tuesdays on the GSN.
• The New York Times profiles younger members of the New York immigrant community, as well as its support of the DREAM Act. Many of these children of undocumented workers are legal citizens, born in the US.  Not all are registered to vote, but they could be a powerful voice on behalf of their parents in the U.S. and local politics. Some groups are trying to gather support there for the DREAM Act, a provision of which has been added as an amendment to the Department of Defense authorization bill (thanks, ImmigrationProf Blog!). In this amendment, undocumented residents of military age who arrived in the US before age 16 and could immediately enter a path to citizenship if they serve at least two years in the armed forces.  The Boston Globe has an update of the bill's progress.
• In a review of over 100 studies, The Boston Globe reports that black women are less healthy because of the pressures of racial discrimination (thanks, RaceWire!).  In one study, black women who indicated that racism was a source of stress in their lives developed more plaque in their carotid arteries – an early sign of heart disease – than black women who didn’t. These studies could reshape racism as a public health problem. These findings come at a time of severe racial disparities in American health care. African Americans face a higher risk than any other racial group of dying from heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and hypertension. These health disparities are exacerbated by lack of access to quality health care and health insurance. Higher poverty rates and lower wages also hinder progress in equality. Check out our fact sheet about African Americans and Opportunity.
• DMI Blog reports on Rinku Sen’s reflection on the possible unity between immigrants and US.-born Blacks, Latinos, Asians and American Indians. She looks at the origin of the term “people of color”, and how it has affected identity in political action. In her experiences as an advocate working in partnership with multiracial organizations, she felt it necessary to “expand [her] identity in a way that tied [her] to Black people as part of their rebellion.” Sen confronts the impact the term has on our immigration debate, and asks whether immigrants fall under the definition of “people of color.” At the end of the day, she acknowledges that she cannot decide this question, but expresses that a positive immigrant policy will include dialogue on race and color as well as nationality and class.
  
  Our view: The best way to achieve fair legislature and rights for immigrants is to understand the common struggles we all face in achieving equality. “People of color” everywhere want the same basic rights – better education, living conditions, wages, and health care – and the only way to achieve anything is to recognize this common struggle. We’re all in this together, and achieving opportunity for one group will be best fought with many partners.

Daily Blog Round-Up 6/18/07

• Firedoglake blogs about the Employee Free Choice, a bill which aims to restore workers’ freedom in choosing a union, especially establishing stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union. FDL explains that while 60 million workers say they would join a union if they could, but many people are intimidated by corporate giants. By stating that this act is a “workplace rights issue,” a “human rights issue,” and a “civil rights issue,” FDL frames the issue in universal terms that appeals to the broad advantages for everyone. The benefits in unionizing workers appear in many forms. With union workers receiving an average wage 30% higher than the nonunion worker, creating greater access to membership will help lessen the growing wage inequalities.  Here's hoping this rights-based frame can help push the issue forward.
• Feminist blogs comments on a piece on Salon.com which compares the rate of obesity in black women to that of white women (78% of black women are considered overweight), and essentially opts to blame black women for preferring to keep the extra pounds and purposely eschew advice to lose weight. Feminist blogs skewers the Salon piece, nothing the complex causes of obesity rates among black women. In 2000, low-income African-American families were 7.3 times more likely than poor white families to live in high poverty neighborhoods with limited resources. In addition, black women are more likely to lack adequate health care access. While 11.2% of white Americans were uninsured at any point in 2005, 19.5% of African Americans were uninsured and more likely to be dependent on public sources of health insurance. It's disappointing to see Salon reduce this alarming trend to individual behaviors.  This is not a question of individual responsibility.  It is one aspect of a larger social issue - which requires increased public awareness and collective action to reach a solution.
• Prometheus 6 reports on the alarming disparities in the racial composition of the 30% of students who fail to graduate high school. In a recent Education Week report, only half of American Indians and black students graduated, compared with more than three-quarters of non-Hispanic whites and Asians. The reports uses information from the 2003-04 school year to estimates the number of graduates in 2007.  Their analysis shows that while minority students make up less than half of the total public school population, they make up more than half of the nongraduates. In addition, Hispanic youth are four times more likely to drop out than are white youth (pdf), creating an education gap that limits opportunities for young people of color and widens other disparities - in income and health coverage, for example - later in life.
• Sentencing Law and Policy reports on a new article from stateline.org about how increasing prices to maintain the overcrowded prisons are leading lawmakers to provide different alternatives to prisons. Some of these ideas include an expanded program to help prevent offenders from being incarcerated again (like diverting funds from prisons to rehabilitation centers), earlier release dates for low-risk inmates and sentencing revisions. State spending on prisons continues to increase at an alarming rate to account for the high number of incarcerated persons. Between 2004 and 2005, not only did the number of incarcerated persons increase, but so did the rate (491 per 100,000 people in 2005 versus 486 per 100,000 in 2004).

Daily Blog Round-Up 6/13/07: Part 2

• The Washington Post discusses the sub par health care that many undocumented workers receive while serving jail time with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Lawyers are currently investigating numerous claims on behalf of undocumented workers who were taken into custody with minor illnesses and released with life-threatening infections. The ACLU stated that detainees often have poor English skills, don’t know their rights and have no access to counsel; another example of how our current system fails to treat both immigrants or those enmeshed in the criminal justice system fairly and humanely.
• In an update to previous coverage of the 5-4 Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire, ACS Blog reports on the House Committee on Education and Labor held a hearing today to consider restoring anti-discriminatory protections for workers. Leadership Conference on Civil Rights’ Wade Henderson stated before the committee that this outcome is “fundamentally unfair to victims of pay discrimination” and that the outcome “ignores the realities of the workplace.”
• Huffington Post reports with more information on the Dreams Across America project (refer to our previous posting): an immigrants’ rights group using Web 2.0 to put a human face on immigration and advocated for comprehensive positive reform that expands opportunity for all in America. As ImmigrationProf adds, the opposition to legalization is strong, with grassfire.org sending 700,000 faxes and emails and making 1 million personal contacts with Senators. Groups like Dreams Across America, with innovative, online strategies, are necessary to combat these opposition organizations that are rallying online.

Daily Blog Round-Up 6/4/07

• Ezra Klein reports on new figures in a Brookings Report regarding the state of social mobility in this country, especially in comparison to other industrialized nations. Klein highlights the changes in income of men in their thirties, and shows that growth for the top 1% of income-earners has increased the most out of any group. His post corroborates data from The State of Opportunity in America (pdf), which found the least mobility in the bottom and top income quintile. People in the lowest income quintiles experience the least mobility, from 19-38 percent average annual mobility over 10 years. Only 7 percent of those starting in the bottom quintile were in the top on follow up. These figures are particularly troubling when viewed in context with racial imbalances. In a 20-year study, African-American and Hispanic median household income was lower than that of whites at each point, and increased to a smaller degree. Only when greater opportunities are given to the lower income brackets can the “American Dream” of rising to the top based on one’s merits exist.
  
• Related to last week’s blog post, Facing South continues the discussion on the changing racial trends in school. Facing South points out that recent reports don't take into account private school students, who comprise a large percentage of Southern white families.  A Duke University study shows that private schools have contributed to the re-segregation of schools in the south, although they accounted for less than a fifth of all school segregation. Importantly, segregation tends to be the highest in the school districts that have non-white percentages between 50 and 70 percent. This comes as the public awaits two Supreme Court decisions on critical school segregation cases which will determine whether school districts may voluntarily continue to integrate the schools. The State of Opportunity in America (pdf) cites that since the mid-1980s, virtually all large school districts have had increasingly lower levels of integration. The 1954 Brown decision promise of acceptance and diversity cannot be fulfilled until school districts encourage integration in ways that work for community.
• Feminist Blogs reports on new statistics from the National Center for Children in Poverty (pdf) about how state policies affect low income children. Most notable is the comparison between the level of poverty among children and the percentage of Non-Hispanic White members of the population. These figures parallel those in The State of Opportunity in America (pdf), which states that in 2000, the poverty rate among African Americans and Hispanics was slightly over 2.6 times greater than that for white Americans. In addition, from 2001 to 2003, poverty rates for all racial and ethnic increased more than for whites. Poverty is represented disproportionately based on race in this country, which threaten the well-being of a diverse country.
• Feminist Blogs also reports on a Department of Public Health study which shows that minority women in Los Angeles country have disproportionately higher rates of chronic disease than others. The report found that black women have the highest mortality rate of any group, and many minority groups reported significant percentages of poverty and low access to health care. The large gaps in health status among racial/ethnic groups are obvious in The State of Opportunity in America (pdf), which explores figures that mortality rates among African American females’ mortality rates have been consistently 25 percent higher than for women overall. Examples like the LA Country’s disproportionate health care coverage and poverty situations highlight a national problem requiring new social reforms.

• Ezra Klein reports on new figures in a Brookings Report regarding the state of social mobility in this country, especially in comparison to other industrialized nations. Klein highlights the changes in income of men in their thirties, and shows that growth for the top 1% of income-earners has increased the most out of any group. His post corroborates data from The State of Opportunity in America (pdf), which found the least mobility in the bottom and top income quintile. People in the lowest income quintiles experience the least mobility, from 19-38 percent average annual mobility over 10 years. Only 7 percent of those starting in the bottom quintile were in the top on follow up. These figures are particularly troubling when viewed in context with racial imbalances. In a 20-year study, African-American and Hispanic median household income was lower than that of whites at each point, and increased to a smaller degree. Only when greater opportunities are given to the lower income brackets can the “American Dream” of rising to the top based on one’s merits exist.
  
• Related to last week’s blog post, Facing South continues the discussion on the changing racial trends in school. Facing South points out that recent reports don't take into account private school students, who comprise a large percentage of Southern white families.  A Duke University study shows that private schools have contributed to the re-segregation of schools in the south, although they accounted for less than a fifth of all school segregation. Importantly, segregation tends to be the highest in the school districts that have non-white percentages between 50 and 70 percent. This comes as the public awaits two Supreme Court decisions on critical school segregation cases which will determine whether school districts may voluntarily continue to integrate the schools. The State of Opportunity in America (pdf) cites that since the mid-1980s, virtually all large school districts have had increasingly lower levels of integration. The 1954 Brown decision promise of acceptance and diversity cannot be fulfilled until school districts encourage integration in ways that work for community.
• Feminist Blogs reports on new statistics from the National Center for Children in Poverty (pdf) about how state policies affect low income children. Most notable is the comparison between the level of poverty among children and the percentage of Non-Hispanic White members of the population. These figures parallel those in The State of Opportunity in America (pdf), which states that in 2000, the poverty rate among African Americans and Hispanics was slightly over 2.6 times greater than that for white Americans. In addition, from 2001 to 2003, poverty rates for all racial and ethnic increased more than for whites. Poverty is represented disproportionately based on race in this country, which threaten the well-being of a diverse country.
• Feminist Blogs also reports on a Department of Public Health study which shows that minority women in Los Angeles country have disproportionately higher rates of chronic disease than others. The report found that black women have the highest mortality rate of any group, and many minority groups reported significant percentages of poverty and low access to health care. The large gaps in health status among racial/ethnic groups are obvious in The State of Opportunity in America (pdf), which explores figures that mortality rates among African American females’ mortality rates have been consistently 25 percent higher than for women overall. Examples like the LA Country’s disproportionate health care coverage and poverty situations highlight a national problem requiring new social reforms.

Daily Blog Round-up: 6/1/07

• Ally Work reports on an article from Lip Magazine which breaks down the ways in which white supremacists exploit tragedy to further their own causes.  Besides using any crime committed by a non-White as a race crime attempted to bring down the majority, many of these groups believe that the media purposely ignores black-on-white killings.  In reality, the media over-represents blacks as offenders, relative to their share of crimes committed. The State of Opportunity in America (pdf) cites findings from the General Social Survey that significant majorities of African Americans are more prone to violence than whites.  When Americans continue to endorse these racist attitudes, the goals of equal access through renewed social policy become compromised.
• Prometheus 6 reports on a New York Times article exposing the rapid growths of minorities in school rolls, especially Hispanics.  This number has peaked at 42% of public school enrollment from 22% thirty years ago.  These figures reflect the changes in the greater composition of the country, where great ethnic shifts are taking place in all regions.  Despite rising enrollment, large test score gaps exist between whites and minority groups.  The State of Opportunity in America (pdf) cites that while 87% of U.S. adults have obtained a high school diploma or the equivalent, the high school degree attainment among Hispanic adults is only just above 60%.  Schools need to provide the proper resources to close this immense gap.  As a way to combat the prejudice that students from lower socioeconomic status may face, some higher education institutions are courting low-income students with offers of grants and tuition wavers, recognizing that their test scores and performance is only in reflection to their resources. This New York Times article highlights the ways in which Amherst seeks to make their class more diverse, not only racially, but also across class differences.
• The Huffington Post reports on the disadvantages of living with such large discrepancies between the top of the wealth index and the bottom, even if you find yourself in the better half.  Citing his new book, The Trap: Selling Out to Stay Afloat in Winner-Take-All America, Daniel Brook explains how the more unbalanced a society is, the more the top will need to pay to keep it afloat.  The State of Opportunity in America (pdf) cites the increases in class divide in the past three decades, in which the wages for the top 5 percent of wage earners grew by 31%, but the wages for the bottom 10% of workers slightly declined.  With these severe trends, it becomes that much more challenging for social mobility and equal opportunity to all members of society.
• The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog reports on the recent increases in California spending on prison budget, extrapolating that in five years, this budget will supersede spending on the state universities.  The author attributes the disorganization in California’s prison department and unprecedented numbers of incarcerations to unclear goals for the function of prisons, either a way to remove criminals from society or rehabilitate them.  These figures in California parallel those found on the national level.  The State of Opportunity in America (pdf) found that in mid-2004, more than 21.13 million people were incarcerated, a number higher than other nations and unprecedented in our history.  Without proper rehabilitation programs, these rates will continue to increase, forcing our law-makers to spend high percentages of budget money to sustain the populations when the money could be used better elsewhere.