Black families' strides offset by incarceration, jobless gap

Black families' gains in income and education are being undermined -- at least to some degree -- by rising incarceration rates and a persistent unemployment gap compared with whites, the Urban League says in its latest report on the state of black America.

Black families are "strong but challenged," said Urban League President Marc Morial. "More black families are counted to be middle income, the number of black businesses are up. But then on the other hand, a higher proportion of black men are in jail and the black unemployment rate, after declining significantly, is back up."

The annual report, scheduled for formal release Wednesday, is a collection of nine essays written by experts in race, social justice, health, psychology and civil rights. Black families have been a recurring theme since it was first published in 1976.

Three decades after he first wrote about black families for the Urban League, Robert Hill, a senior researcher at the Rockville, Md., research firm Westat, examines how the social and economic status of black families has changed.

Racism remains, he writes. In the last 30 years, "there has been a strong shift from Jim Crow -- the overt manifestation of racial hatred by individuals and white society -- to James Crow, Esquire -- the maintenance of racial inequality through covert processes of structure and institutions," he says.

Though blacks are no more likely than whites to mistreat their children, they are over-represented in the foster care system, he says. Nationally, black children comprise about one in five children, but account for almost half of the 550,000 in foster care.

Teen pregnancy contributes to the instability of black families -- black teens are about three times more likely than whites to have out-of-wedlock babies, Hill says. Other factors which have hurt black families, he says, include: urban renewal efforts, which displaced many blacks and created segregated high-rise public housing; drug use, and the AIDS epidemic.

Economically, a decline in manufacturing and the rise of service industries meant many black workers went from higher-paying blue-collar jobs to much lower-paying white-collar service jobs, he says.

Blacks have made little progress in narrowing the jobless gap with whites. In June, the national unemployment rate for whites was 5.5 percent; for blacks, 11.8 percent. In 1972, the jobless rate among whites was 5.1 percent; for blacks, 10.4 percent.

And while black families' median income increased, it still remains at only 60 percent of white families', Hill says.

But black families also have demonstrated continued strengths through their strong desire to see children go to college, work ethic, support provided by extended family members and their religious faith, which has helped upward mobility among blacks, Hill says.

Other essays in the report focus on stresses to black families, including:

-- An increase in the black population in prisons. Though blacks make up about 12 percent of the nation's population, they account for nearly half of the people in prison, says Ernest Drucker, author of an essay on incarceration.

That divides families -- more than half of incarcerated men have children who are minors, Drucker says.

The incarceration disparities have been fueled by drug enforcement policies that have harsher effects on blacks, says James Lanier of the Urban League's Institute for Opportunity and Equality. He cites data showing that blacks account for 13 percent of the nation's drug users, but 35 percent of drug arrests and 53 percent of drug convictions.

-- A child care shortage that is especially prevalent in poor, urban counties where many blacks live.

-- Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families who are an integral part of the black community but are still not recognized by some. About 40 percent of women, 18 percent of men and 15 percent of transgender people surveyed at Black Pride celebrations in nine cities said they had at least one child.

The report, which also includes essays on black feminism, black girls and their families, the legacy of sociologist E. Franklin Frazier and a special section on affirmative action, is to be released at a news conference in Washington.

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