In the latest of its annual reports on poverty, “Racism’s Toll,” Heartland Alliance’s Social IMPACT Research Center reveals the moral, human and economic cost of what a press release calls “inequities in the state and calls out public policies that have and are actively creating these racial inequities.”
Among the report’s findings are:
—Black children in Illinois are nearly four times more likely to live below the poverty line than white children;
—Poor Black (16 percent) and Latino (22 percent) Illinoisans are more likely to live within a mile of a hazardous chemical facility than poor whites (13 percent); and
—Nationally, the median net worth for a white household is $110,500 versus $6,314 for a Black one.
“The consistency and persistence of these severe disparities by race in Illinois underscore how much more work we have to do,” said Amy Terpstra, director of the Social IMPACT Research Center and a co-author of the report. “These inequities are the product of the public policies, market forces, and institutional practices of both yesterday and today, which systematically place barriers in the path of Illinoisans of color.”
“Racism’s Toll: Report on Illinois Poverty” is available for download at www.ilpovertyreport.org.