Incarceration and Fewer Jobs Cited as
Lag on Black Gains

AP 21jul03

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

Black families are "strong but challenged," said Marc Morial, president of the Urban League.

The annual report, scheduled for release on Wednesday, is a collection of nine essays written by experts on race, social justice, health, psychology and civil rights.

Robert Hill, a senior researcher at the Rockville, Md., firm Westat, examines how the social and economic status of black families has changed.

Racism remains, he wrote. 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 wrote.

Though blacks are no more likely than whites to mistreat their children, they are over-represented in the foster care system, Mr. Hill wrote.

Teenage pregnancy contributes to the instability of black families; black teenagers are about three times more likely than whites to have babies out of wedlock, Mr. Hill said. Other factors that have hurt black families, he said, include drug use and AIDS.

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 said.