Its booming tech industry, modern politics and growing economy have established California as a progressive powerhouse with vast opportunities for its residents. But people of color and indigenous communities are consistently left out of this picture, according to a new report released Wednesday by several civil rights organizations, which analyzed racial disparities across the state.
While many of California’s 58 counties are by all means prosperous, “antiquated systems and policies” perpetuate deeply-rooted racial disparities that leave disadvantaged communities struggling to keep up, the report said. It revealed a particularly stark contrast in the Bay Area, where several counties flourishing economically and socially are also harboring significant disparities.
Blacks carry the heaviest burden of these disparities across the state, while Latinos are the largest group affected by these inequalities, according to researchers. Criminal justice is the highest racial disparity of any key issue, with incarceration the most racially disparate indicator.
“This is something that matters greatly and really helps us understand that the accumulated burdens of disparity in the past persist today,” said Manuel Pastor, director of the University of Southern California’s Program for Environmental and Regional Equity, who helped produce the initiative.
Using research and data analysis, the RACE COUNTS initiative ranks racial disparities in California’s 58 counties in seven areas, including democracy, economic opportunity, safety and justice, access to health care, healthy built environments, education, and housing. The initiative is an online tool created by the civil rights organization Advancement Project California, along with USC’s Program for Environmental and Regional Equity, PICO National Network and California Calls.
Researchers measured the disparities using three key factors: performance — meaning how well people are doing in a given county — disparity, or how certain races are performing in comparison to others, and impact, or size of the total population. “Indicators” in each of the seven areas were used to track the disparities. For example, indicators considered under crime and justice were truancy arrests and perception of safety, among several others. Indicators within education included high school graduation rates and math proficiency.
The Bay Area had the highest performing counties in the region but the most significant racial disparities in the state, particularly in Alameda, San Francisco and Marin counties, according to the report.
“At the same time that the tech boom created wealth and attracted a highly-educated, high-earning workforce, it also increased housing prices and promoted gentrification, while exacerbating existing racial disparities,” the report said.
Unlike most of the other Bay Area counties, Santa Clara County combined very high performance with levels of racial disparity that were slightly better than those for the state as a whole, the report said. Researchers also noted that the county is actively advocating for more affordable housing.
But Christina Livingston, executive director of Alliance of Californians for Community Engagement, said the report doesn’t include a city-by-city focus of these racial disparities, which would potentially paint a different story.
“Santa Clara County is one of the counties that has smaller disparities,” she said. “But if you’re on the ground in San Jose, you know that in the area of housing, the housing market is in pain there.”
Livingston said she knows of six people who live in a 2-bedroom apartment in San Jose, each paying $600 in monthly rent.
“Those kinds of stories will seem as though they’re bumping against the data, but county wide it is the case that they have higher performance and that the disparities are not as severe,” she said.