The data from the Center for Social Inclusion is disturbing.
The organization has analyzed 2009 US Census data and uncovered the huge economic gap between people of color and whites.
- Unemployment is 26.5% for young Black men, 14.2% for Young Latino men, and 11.7% for young White men.
- Wages dropped 5.6% for Latinos, 4.4% for Asians, 2.8% for Blacks, and 2.6% for Whites.
- Poverty has reached 24.6% among African Americans compared to 23.2% for Latinos, 11.6% for Asians, and 11.0% for Whites.
- The percent of uninsured is 30.7% among Latinos, 18.9% among African Americans, 17.1% among Asians, and 10.8% among Whites.
“It’s time to act. Economic recovery will exist in name only for too many of our neighbors if we don’t put in place the policies that are needed to reach everyone,” said Maya Wiley, executive director of the Center for Social Inclusion. “The newly poor are disproportionately women, children, Black, Latino and Asian. We can not let a massive recovery effort bypass the hardest hit.”
The Center for Social Inclusion calls for better targeting of stimulus funds to address the hardest hit regions and populations. They are correct. The stimulus funds have been allocated broadly as entitlements and not targeted at communities in need. At least not in Texas. Throwing stimulus money in all directions spreads it so thin it has little effect.
