MADISON, WIS., has a reputation as one of the most liberal cities in the country. It is also possibly the most racially unequal. In early October, Race to Equity--a Madison-based initiative started by the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families--released a report detailing racial disparities in Madison, and more broadly in Dane County, Wis. The findings are staggering. ...Here are just a few examples of the extreme inequality that exists in Dane County. -- In 2011, the unemployment rate was 25.2 percent for Blacks compared to just 4.8 percent for whites. Nationally, the unemployment rate was 18 percent for Blacks and 8 percent for whites. ...-- More than 74 percent of Black children live under the poverty level as opposed to just 5.5 percent of white children. The report suggested that this 13 to 1 disparity ratio may constitute one of the widest Black/white child poverty gaps that the Census Surveys reported for any jurisdiction in the nation. ...-- African American adolescents, while constituting less than 9 percent of the countys youth population, made up almost 80 percent of all the local kids sentenced to the states juvenile correctional facility in 2011.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 20:00:03 +0000
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