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| Luke Sharrett for the NY Times |
Words from Mr. Wright at Wright and Left (full post here):
It takes but a quick look at our charts to see just how sick we still are. If we lived in a post-racial society, our percentages would align. The ills and successes available to Americans would be doled out equitably, with little regard for race or ethnicity. In a post-racial society, we would have a senate that replicates our demographics, with thirteen black senators, seventeen Hispanics, five Asian-Americans, an American Indian, and two multiracial representatives. Certainly these numbers may not play out exactly with each election, but they certainly would be stronger than the four total representatives of color--two Hispanic and two Asian-American--we have currently or the twenty-one senators of color we have had in the entire history of that institution. In a post-racial society, our 15.1% poverty rate would be true for all demographics. Instead, 27.4% of blacks and 26.6% of Hispanics live in poverty--a rate almost three times that of the 9.9% rate for non-Hispanic whites. Unemployment and incarceration rates are similarly skewed. September unemployment figures showed non-Hispanic whites down to 7.0% while blacks were at 13.4% and Hispanics were at 9.9%, and, for every 100,000 people in each population, we incarcerate 380 non-Hispanic whites, 966 Hispanics, and 2,207 blacks.
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