Poverty and Race in America: Causes and Urban Solutions

Introduction: Poverty, Race, and Infant Mortality

As a country, we like to believe that we deal well with the issue of poverty and that race is rarely a significant factor in today's society. The statistics, however, suggest something else. In a study conducted only eight years ago, researchers found strong links between poverty, race, and illiteracy in American communities. The statistics on infant mortality in poor, minority neighborhoods were particularly troubling. In some of these neighborhoods, the infant mortality rate was nearly five times the national average. In one neighborhood, almost 4% of babies born over the previous 25 years died during infancy. In others, 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, mothers received Medicaid, but the communities lacked convenient access to medical care. As a result, across the entire county, 10% of pregnant women either received no prenatal care or received significantly less than needed — seeing a doctor fewer than 50% of the number of visits recommended for good maternal care. Compounding this problem, the area also had an alarmingly high rate of underweight babies, a factor strongly correlated with developmental problems, birth defects, and infant mortality (Petrie, 1997).

Child Poverty Rates and International Comparisons

While Cincinnati was the focus of that study, it is not the only area in the country facing such challenges. At the dawn of the new millennium, 20% of children in America lived in poverty. When these figures are broken down by race, 47% of America's Black children were found to be living in poverty. These numbers become even more alarming when compared with child poverty rates in other developed nations. In Denmark, for instance, only 2% of children live in poverty (Walzer, 1999).

Urban Economic Decline and Employment

Multiple factors contribute to these troubling statistics. In recent years, urban economic bases have shifted significantly. Many companies that were once located in cities have relocated to the suburbs. As a result, disenfranchised city residents have diminished access to good jobs and the economic opportunities those jobs provide (Furdell, 1993). This shift makes solving poverty in inner cities increasingly difficult. Available jobs tend to require few skills or educational qualifications, offer little in the way of long-term advantages, and keep workers at minimal income levels.

Education, Race, and School Performance

Poverty is also deeply tied to education and the lack of opportunity it creates. In 2001, Colorado published its state's school "report cards." Of the thirty schools identified as the worst in the state, 28 were located in metropolitan Denver. Fifty percent of Denver's high schools received the lowest rating possible. When a local newspaper analyzed the findings, it found strong links between school performance, poverty, and race. The poorest-performing schools consistently served poor, minority students. The paper examined other possible explanations — such as teacher experience — but found little correlation (Mitchell, 2001).

In the weakest schools, 81% of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunches. In the highest-rated schools, only 3.5% of students qualified for such programs. School ratings dropped in direct proportion to the increase in the number of students receiving subsidized lunches, which the paper used as an indicator of students' family economic status (Mitchell, 2001). Overall, among schools where 75% or more of the students participated in 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 predominantly minority student populations — approximately 20% Black, 68% Hispanic, 1% Asian, and 8% white — further connecting both race and poverty to poor academic outcomes.