Tariq Nelson

From the Post Gazette

Sad:

The bad news about Pittsburgh’s African-American population just got worse, and it should shake up every resident of any race in Western Pennsylvania.

A study released last week by the University of Pittsburgh’s Center on Race and Social Problems confirmed, yet again, that African Americans in our region remain at the bottom of every measure of the quality of life, which include indicators of economic status, educational achievement, family stability and violence.

Add to that dismaying information a new, more startling discovery: African Americans who have called Pittsburgh home for generations are living lives more impoverished and desperate than even the most recent immigrants to Pittsburgh.

Data compiled about four racial groups in Pittsburgh — white, black, Asian and Hispanic — show that not only whites have eclipsed African Americans in education, employment and most other dimensions of life, but so have Asians and Hispanics.

[...]Our recent report, the most comprehensive ever done on the quality of life of multiple racial groups in the greater Pittsburgh area, shows that:

African-American men are unemployed at more than twice the rate of white men;

The African-American poverty rate is more than twice that of whites;

Only a third of black students in the city were proficient in reading in the 11th grade, no better than they were in the 5th grade; only a fifth were proficient in math in the 11th grade, a drop from their proficiency in the 5th grade;

For all categories of arrests, Asian and Hispanic juveniles and adults hardly register. By contrast, violent-crime arrests for African-American juveniles in Pittsburgh are twice the rate for black juveniles nationally, and murder and manslaughter arrests for adult blacks in the city are nearly 30 times that of whites.

[...]

Our next step in this study is to discern the causes of our current dismal state, explore what has worked to elevate the quality of black life elsewhere in the country and work to inspire government, philanthropic, educational, neighborhood and religious leaders to create and implement policies that are equitable, smart and courageous. We also will call upon the black community to take ownership of this initiative, just as they took center stage in the civil rights movement a generation ago.

But most importantly, we need to keep this critical issue always in front of us, even when the results of a fresh race survey are not. The issue needs to be part of the discussion whether the topic is taxes, arenas, casinos, safety, housing, pollution, jobs, education, health, transportation, government consolidation, ethics, the young, the old or criminal justice.

This long-standing problem has become an ugly thread woven through the fabric of Pittsburgh. Its solution will require an intricate re-weaving. The Center on Race and Social Problems pledges to provide the frame and urges every citizen to help create a new urban tapestry, this one beautiful for all.