New report catalogs "extreme" racial disparities in Dane County

Judith Davidoff:

There's a contradiction in Dane County that is becoming hard to ignore. While the community is known for its high standard of living, educated workforce and progressive values, multiple studies have found African Americans here have one of the highest arrest and incarceration rates in the country, do poorly in school relative to whites, and live far more often in poverty.

Trying to get to the bottom of these seemingly incompatible truths inspired a report by the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families that measures the "extent and pattern" of racial disparities in Dane County.

"The desire to understand the seeming paradox between reputation and reality was an important motive behind the creation of the Race to Equity Project," the authors wrote in their introduction. "Could a place as prosperous, resourceful and progressive as Dane County also be home to some of the most profound, pervasive and persistent racial disparities in the country?"

Project director Erica Nelson acknowledges that Race to Equity: A Baseline Report on the State of Racial Disparities in Dane County, to be released formally Wednesday at the annual YWCA Racial Justice Summit, did not produce the answer to the "paradox."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at October 4, 2013 12:06 AM
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