Wednesday, June 19, 2013

America: More Diverse yet Less Equal?

The Root ^ | June 19, 2013 | Edward Wyckoff Williams

Last week the U.S. Census Bureau released data revealing that the majority of children under age 5 were from racial- and ethnic-minority backgrounds and predicted that white Americans will officially become a minority by 2043. At first glance this appears to be positive news -- the promise of a melting pot realized. Yet the report comes in the same month that the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hand down two important decisions about race: the first a challenge by the state of Alabama to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the second questioning the constitutionality of affirmative action in college admissions at the University of Texas. (The UT case was filed by a white woman claiming that she was discriminated against in favor of supposedly "less qualified" ethnic minorities -- though her grades and test scores failed to meet UT standards, regardless of race -- displaying the epitome of petulant white privilege.)
It seems that some white Americans in particular and conservatives in general see President Obama's ascendance and the growth of minority populations as reasons for abandoning proactive policies designed to eradicate racial inequality. Indeed, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia went so far as to describe affirmative action as a "racial entitlement" -- framing the issue through a political lens rather than a legal one -- and thereby qualifying it as welfare for the undeserving.
Federal Reserve data and Bureau of Labor statistics show that although the nation is becoming less white, wealth is being disproportionately allocated into white hands. Wealth and income gaps continue to widen along racial lines, with whites earning $2 for every $1 earned by African Americans and Hispanics. That gap has remained consistent for 30 years -- despite affirmative action policies of the 1970s and early '80s.
(Excerpt) Read more at theroot.com ...

T-Shirt