More black men in jail or college? An old “fact” revisited
We always hear about the disproportionate number of blacks in prison, but I’ve always wondered: how many are incarcerated and what does that really mean? What I didn’t realize is how difficult it is to pin down a precise number. I mean, true, it doesn’t take too much to find out that black men are incarcerated at a rate six and a half times higher than white men. That’s easily available through the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. But ever since the Justice Policy Institute released a report in 2002 stating that there were more black men in jail than college, people have just ran with the numbers. Even President Obama did it. That study, however, quoted figures from 10 years ago and, surprisingly, the number of blacks in prison has actually declined. And I haven’t been able to find anything recent that concretely dispels the myth, only skeptics that point to the fact that the saying is a myth. So I decided to do my own update to see if the old saying is still true.
There you have it.
Random Facts: Black America at a glance
The Census Bureau puts out a nicely packaged report called “Facts for Features” almost every month that highlights some of the latest figures associated with the holidays most typically celebrated in this country. I recently ran across the 2009 report commemorating Black History Month. So for one of my ongoing series “Random Facts,” I’d like to share what I found:
40.7 million
As of July 1, 2007, African Americans comprised 13.5 percent of the U.S. population. That translates to 40.7 million people. (Note: The report also says this figure represents an increase of half a million residents from a year earlier. Could this be a trend?)
65.7 million
The projected black population of the U.S. in 2050. This would mean blacks would constitute 15 percent of the people in this country. (I recently heard someone say black people were 15 percent of the population now, but I think he was thinking about 40 years ahead.)
18
Number of states with an estimated 1 million black folks. New York led the way with 3.5 million, followed by Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. (I wonder how this compares with voting records?)
24
Not the TV show, but the number of states in which blacks were the largest minority group. These include Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, D.C., West Virginia and Wisconsin. (Now, I can understand all the southern states, D.C., Illinois and Michigan. But Maine? Minnesota? West Virginia? Why aren’t we hearing more stories about black people there?)
1.4 million
The number of blacks in Cook County, Ill., which led the nation’s counties in the number of people in this racial category. (Note: This is the same county where 16-year-old honor roll student Derrion Albert was beaten to death. Think we need to pay more attention to this area, America?)
31
The percentage of the black population younger than 18.
Now all I need to do is find the stories that were already done that touched on these figures, since they were right there for everyone to see. Anyone up for a little crowdsourcing?