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State Racial Disparities Worst in the Nation

A biennial analysis of data on Wisconsin's economy offers a grim view of growing disparities between white and black residents. "Our state is a relatively good state for white people," said Laura Dresser, research director of the center and co-author of the report. "Our state is a relatively bad state for black people." In fact, on several measures, Wisconsin has the largest gaps between white and black residents in the country, according to the report, including: Child poverty. In 2000, African-American children were six times more likely than white children to be living in poverty, a higher rate than in any other state, exceeded only by Washington, D.C. Milwaukee poverty. Nearly a third of Milwaukee's black residents lived in poverty, seven times higher than the rate for white Milwaukeeans - a greater disparity than in any other U.S. metropolitan area. Education. The gaps in math and reading test scores between black and white eighth-graders were larger in Wisconsin than in any other state in 2003. Wisconsin eighth-graders also had the biggest racial difference for scores on the national science test when it was last administered in 1996. Incarceration. In 2001, 4,058 of every 100,000 black residents in Wisconsin were in prison, the highest rate in the nation. Unemployment. Wisconsin's black residents had an unemployment rate of 19% in 2002, four times higher than the rate for white residents, the biggest divergence in the country. [more

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Survey indicates people in Milwaukee area choose segregation [more ]
Thomas M. Shapiro, a professor at Brandeis University, says racial inequality is increasing. The average black family, Shapiro reports, has 10 cents worth of wealth for every dollar that whites have. Blacks as a group are poorer than Hispanics. They are far poorer than Asians, who are at the same economic level as whites or higher. [more]