Poverty and Race in America

Poverty and Race in America As a country, we like to believe that we deal well with the issue of poverty and that race is rarely a significant issue in today's society. The statistics, however, suggest something else. In a study done by the University of Cincinnati only eight years ago, researchers found strong links between poverty, race and illiteracy. The statistics they found about infant mortality in poor, minority-race neighborhoods were particularly troubling. In some poor minority neighborhoods, the infant mortality rate was nearly five times the national average.

In one neighborhood, almost 4% of babies born in the previous 25 years died during infancy. In other neighborhoods, more than 30 out of every thousand babies born died before their first birthdays (Petrie, 1997). Not surprisingly, the residents of these neighborhoods were black, poor, and under-educated. The average adult in these communities had not completed ninth grade. In most of these neighborhoods, the mothers received Medicaid but the neighborhoods were without convenient medical care.

As a result, for the entire county 10% of pregnant women either received no prenatal care or received significantly less than needed, seeing a doctor less than 50% of the number of visits recommended for good maternal care. Not surprisingly, Cincinnati also has an alarmingly high rate of underweight babies, a factor strongly correlated with developmental problems, birth defects and infant mortality (Petrie, 1997). While Cincinnati was the focus of this study, Cincinnati is not the only are in the country facing such challenges.

At the dawn of the new Millennium, 20% of the children in America lived in poverty. When these figures are recalculated by race, 47% of America's black children live in poverty. These numbers are even more shocking when compared with poverty rates in other First World countries. For instance, in Denmark only 2% of the children live in poverty (Walzer, 1999). Multiple factors contribute to these unsettling statistics. In recent years, urban economic bases have shifted. Many companies that used to be located in cities have moved to the suburbs.

As a result, disenfranchised city residents have diminished access to good jobs with the resulting economic opportunities such jobs provide (Furdell, 1993). As a result, solutions for poverty in our inner cities is harder to solve. Available jobs tend to require little in the way of skills or education and have few long-term advantages, and tend to keep the workers working at minimal income levels. Poverty is tied to education as well as lack of employment opportunities.

In 2001, Colorado published its state's school "report cards." Of thirty schools identified as the worst in the state, 28 were in metropolitan Denver. 50% of Denver's high schools received the lowest rating possible. When a local newspaper analyzed the findings, they saw strong links between school performance and both poverty and race. The poorest-performing schools served poor, minority students. The paper looked at other possible explanations, such as teacher experience, but found little correlation (Mitchell, 2001). In the weakest schools, 81% of the students qualified for free or reduced-price lunches.

In the schools rated highest, only 3 1/2% of students qualified for such programs. In addition, school ratings dropped in direct proportion to the rise in number of students receiving subsidized lunches. The paper used subsidized lunches as one indication of the economic status of the students' families (Mitchell, 2001). Overall, among schools where 75% or more of the students were part of the subsidized lunch program, only four schools were rated "average." All others scored "low," or "unsatisfactory," and none were considered to be doing a better-than-average job of educating students (Mitchell, 2001).

These schools also had largely minority student populations: about 20% were black, 68% were Hispanic, while 1% were Asian and 8% white, thus tying both race and poverty to the poor school showings. Writers talk about a "culture of poverty" or "underclass" to describe people who seem unable to break out of their poverty-stricken circumstances. Researchers describe them as "completely demoralized and declassed by their experiences at the very bottom of the economic ladder" (Bush, 2003).

Surrounded by poor schools, having received an inadequate education themselves and with no real prospects for an any kind of job that could elevate their financial circumstances, such a feeling of defeat is understandable. But is there a solution? The National League of Cities (NLC) examined urban poor areas and noticed that economic development programs might play a significant role in breaking this cycle of poverty (Furdell, 1993). They surveyed leaders in 188 cities across the country and found.