Persistent Racial Inequities

Today I received the 2006 Legislative Report Card on Racial Equity, produced by The Applied Research Center. Here are some of their findings.

• For people of color in Illinois, the median household net worth is $18,160; for whites, it is $111,750.
  
• Between 1980 and 2004, the hourly wage gap in Illinois between white workers and Latino workers widened by 24 percent; the gap between whites and Blacks widened by 162 percent.
  
• Blacks and Latinos are 15 and 10 percent, respectively, of the Chicago area workforce, but 30 and 27 percent of the working poor.
  
• Working-age Blacks and Latinos are, respectively, twice and three times as likely as whites to have no health insurance.
  
• Undocumented Latinos are five times as likely as whites to be without health insurance.
  
• Only half of Black and Latino students graduate from high school, compared to 82 percent of whites.
  
• For every Black person in an Illinois college or university, 2.5 are in prison or on parole.
  
• During the 2003 school year, school districts with the fewest students of color spent $1,496 more per student than districts with the most students of color.