Peaceful protests have taken place in several US cities, sparked by a white jury’s decision not to charge two white policemen over the killing of an unarmed Black teenager, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner, who was rather killed in an illegal choke-hold, for absolutely no reason.
The death of Michael Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Missouri, on 9 August and Eric Garner has reignited the debate about race relations in the US. Here are six surprising statistics that help tell the story.
Perhaps these statistics show that the professed support that white Americans have for integration has only gone so far ot benefit just them.
There are only two black billionaires in the US – chat show host Oprah Winfrey and former basketball star Michael Jordan. This compared with about 500 white billionaires.
Black students appear to do well in high school – just over 30% of over-25s have a diploma, compared with 27% of white over-25s. But fewer than 10% of black over-25s completed a bachelor’s degree, compared with 14.4% of whites.
A survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute in 2013 asked a range of questions to assess how diverse people’s friendship groups were. It found that while 65% of black Americans reported only having black friends, 75% of white Americans said they had only whites in their social circle.
Unemployment remains far higher among the black population, than the white. Currently 4.8% of white Americans are out of work, compared with an overall average of 5.8%
Figures based on the prison population at the end of December 2013 show black Americans made up a disproportionate number of inmates. Some 32% were white and 22% Hispanic.
Data sources: US Census, Public Religion Research Institute, Forbes, US Dept of Labor, US Dept of Justice
Racism is still alive but its on its way to the hospital. One day the sides will change, one day, when the children of God shall rise and take their rightful places in the world. The world will be better then. The world will be more peaceful and the world will be fair for everyone.
Let’s just hope that racism is not revived and given a new life once it reaches the hospital.
Say what you may but stats do not lie. Racism in America is alive and kicking. And most white folks have dug their heads under their feathers surfing the wind of privilege that is accrued to them through Black oppression, hoping that they can continue convincing themselves and the world that everything they have and have achieved is because they worked hard for it. Lies Lies Lies!
Telling statistics really! White American definitely does not like to share anything – not even mass incarceration.
I am peeved by these stats but I am hopeful of a world becoming, where African Americans, as meek as they have been and still are, shall inherit the earth. This is not just a whimsical saying, it is a fact of history. Mark those words.
After all this work we have out into building this America, only 2 Billionaires? Shameful really. Out of 500? Shameful really, this America.
That final statistic is alarming. Black men are being ripped away from their families and not given the opportunity to support their children because of their mass incarceration. Pretty much the federal government is saying that black people shouldn’t have families and live regular lives. This has to stop.
The federal government has been invaded by KKK members and it has become a proxy for waging war against anybody that they think is a threat to their existence. Why? I don’t the hell know. Only these people seem to have a problem with existence. It is as if they do not regard other human beings as the same as them. This disease that white people seem to have – the afraid to mix syndrome – should really be examined. No other swaths of people tend to think in this horrid apocalyptic terms.
‘Afraid to mix disease’. Hmm… incredibly accurate.
What is they said we Black people have the ‘afraid to build our own communities disease?’
That will be accurate! White people have an ‘afraid to mix disease’ and Black folk have the ‘I want to integrate syndrome’. This is just recipe for tension – racial tension.
Grimm statistics! Just dire.