Page 8 The Skanner February 28, 2018
News
STUDY: US Inequality Persists 50 Years After Landmark Report
School segregation persists, and income inequality is worse than it was in 1968, new report says
ALBUQUERQUE,
N.M. (AP) — Barriers to
equality pose threats to
democracy in the U.S.
as the country remains
segregated along racial
lines and child poverty
worsens, according to
study made public Tues-
day that examines the
nation 50 years after the
release of the landmark
1968 Kerner Report.
The new report blames
U.S. policymakers and
elected officials, saying
they’re not doing enough
to heed the warning on
deepening poverty and
inequality that was high-
lighted by the Kerner
Commission five decades
ago and it lists areas
where the country has
seen “a lack of or rever-
sal of progress.”
“Racial and ethnic
inequality is growing
worse. We’re resegre-
gating our housing and
schools again,” former
Democratic U.S. Sen.
Fred Harris of Oklaho-
ma, a co-editor of the
new report and the last
surviving member of the
original Kerner Commis-
sion created by President
Lyndon Johnson in 1967.
“There are far more peo-
ple who are poor now
than was true 50 years
ago. Inequality of income
is worse.”
The new study titled
“Healing Our Divided So-
ciety: Investing in Amer-
ica Fifty Years After the
Kerner Report” says the
AP PHOTO/ RUSSELL CONTRERAS
By Russell Contreras
Associated Press
In this Monday, Feb. 19, 2018, photo, former U.S. Sen. Fred Harris, of Oklahoma, sits in his home in Corrales,
N.M., and discusses his role as a member of the landmark 1968 Kerner Report looking into the urban riots
of the late 1960s. A new study examining the nation 50 years after the release of the report says barriers
to equality are posing threats to democracy in the U.S. as the country remains segregated along racial
lines and child poverty worsens.
percentage of people
living in deep poverty
— less than half of the
federal poverty level —
has increased since 1975.
About 46 percent of peo-
ple living in poverty in
2016 were classified as
living in deep poverty
— 16 percentage points
higher than in 1975.
And although there
has been progress for
Hispanic homeowner-
ship since the Kerner
Commission issued its
report, the homeown-
ership gap has widened
for African Americans,
the new study found.
Three decades after the
Fair Housing Act of 1968
passed, black homeown-
ership rose by almost 6
percentage points. But
those gains were wiped
out from 2000 to 2015
when black homeown-
ership fell 6 percentage
points, the report said.
The report blames the
Black homeownership
declines on the dispro-
portionate effect that
the subprime mortgage
lending crisis had on Af-
rican American families.
In addition, gains to
end school segregation
were reversed because of
a lack of court oversight
and housing discrimi-
nation, the new report
said. The court oversight
allowed school districts
to move away from de-
segregation plans and
housing discrimination
forced black and Latino
families to move into
largely minority neigh-
borhoods.
In 1988, for example,
about 44 percent of black
students went to majori-
ty-white schools nation-
ally. Only 20 percent of
black students do so to-
day, the report said.
The result of these gaps
means that people of col-
or and those struggling
with poverty are con-
fined to poor areas with
inadequate housing, un-
derfunded schools and
law enforcement that
views those residents
with suspicion, the re-
port said.
Those facts are bad
for the whole country,
and communities have a
moral responsibility to
address them now, said
Harris, who now lives in
the village of Corrales
near Albuquerque.
The new report calls on
the federal government
and states to push for
more spending on early
childhood education and
a $15 national minimum
wage by 2024. It also de-
mands more regulatory
oversight over lenders
to prevent predatory
lending, community po-
licing that works with
nonprofits in minority
neighborhoods and more
job training programs in
an era of automation and
emerging technologies.
“We have to have a
massive outcry against
the state of our public
policies,” said the Rev.
William J. Barber II, a
Goldsboro, North Caro-
lina pastor who is lead-
ing a multi-ethnic “Poor
People’s Campaign: A
National Call for Moral
Revival” next month in
multiple states. “System-
ic racism is something
we don’t talk about. Sys-
temic poverty is some-
thing we don’t talk about.
We need to now.”
The late President
Johnson formed the orig-
inal 11-member Kerner
Commission as Detroit
was engulfed in a rag-
ing race riot in 1967. Five
days of violence over ra-
cial tensions and police
violence left 33 blacks
and 10 whites dead, and
more than 1,400 build-
ings burned. More than
7,000 people were arrest-
ed.
That summer, more
than 150 cases of civil un-
rest erupted across the
United States. Harris and
other commission mem-
bers toured riot-torn
cities and interviewed
black and Latino resi-
dents and white police
officers.
The commission rec-
ommended that the fed-
eral government spend
billions to attack struc-
tural racism in housing,
education and employ-
ment. But Johnson, an-
gry that the commission
members did not praise
his anti-poverty pro-
grams, shelved the re-
port and refused to meet
with members.
Alan Curtis, president
of the Milton S. Eisen-
hower Foundation and
co-editor of the new re-
port, said this study’s
attention to systemic
racism should be less
startling to the nation
given the extensive re-
search that now calls the
country’s discriminato-
ry housing and crimi-
nal justice systems into
question.
Unlike the 1968 find-
ings, the new report in-
cludes input from Afri-
can-Americans, Latinos,
Native Americans and
women who are scholars
and offer their own rec-
ommendations.
“The average American
thinks we progressed a
lot,” said Kevin Wash-
burn, University of New
Mexico law professor
and citizen of the Chicka-
saw Nation of Oklahoma
who shared his obser-
vations for the report.
“But there are still some
places where Native peo-
ple live primitive lives.
They don’t have access
to things such as good
water, electricity and
plumbing.”
Like the 1968 report,
the new study also crit-
icizes media organiza-
tions for their coverage
of communities of color.
News companies could
become desensitized to
inequality if they lack
diverse newsrooms, and
they might not view the
issue as urgent or news-
worthy, said journalist
Gary Younge, who con-
tributed to the report.
“It turns out that some-
times ‘dog bites man’ re-
ally is the story,” Younge
said. “And we keep miss-
ing it.”
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