African Americans lag behind white Americans in employment and educational outcomes nationally, but University of Iowa Professor Colin Gordon’s Race in the Heartland report argues that the gap between white and black Midwesterners is among the worst in the country.
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Furthermore, a related paper entitled “Wisconsin’s Extreme Racial Disparity” uses data from Gordon’s report to demonstrate that the state has the highest disparity between white and black residents in employment, bachelor’s degrees, and 8th grade math scores.
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The state also ranks among the worst in the country for racial gaps in voter participation, home ownership, and incarceration.
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Laura Dresser is the Associate Director of COWS, a nonprofit, nonpartisan “think-and-do tank” based at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, which partnered with the Iowa Policy Project, Policy Matters Ohio, and the Economic Policy Institute to produce the report. She says that segregationist policies hampered black communities’ ability to rebound from economic downturns.
https://www.wortfm.org/new-report-shows-extreme-racial-disparities-in-wisconsin-midwest/