Time is reporting on a study completed by University of Chicago researchers Derek Neal and Armin Rick that has uncovered data which shows that unemployment and incarceration rates put black men in a position that makes them not much better off than they were fifty years ago, when compared to white men. These findings come despite the fact that the 50th anniversary of such landmark events as the March on Washington and the signing of the Civil Rights Act have recently come to pass.
The study uses census data revealing that more than 10 percent of black men who are in their 30s will be sent to jail at some point during the current year. This number is only 2 percent for white males in their 30s. The study states, “The growth of incarceration rates among black men in recent decades combined with the sharp drop in black employment rates during the Great Recession have left most black men in a position relative to white men that is really no better than the position they occupied only a few years after the Civil Rights Act.”
Read the rest of April V. Taylor’s article here.
