Racial Equity

Systemic racism is a global, national and local issue, underlying and amplifying many of our most critical social challenges. In this section, we examine racial and ethnic disparities in financial, education and community indicators.

Historic and current policies, practices and systems include housing policies that restrict access to people of color, employment discrimination, unequal access to financial services and capital, education systems that fail to equitably educate all students, racism in health care delivery, racial profiling and inequitable sentencing in policing and criminal justice and many others. These inequities have compounded over generations, impacting decades of family members. This is significantly illustrated by the redlining practices of the 1930s that blocked Black people and people of color from securing real estate, leaving them unable to benefit from a critical opportunity to create and transfer wealth across generations.

Racial and ethnic disparities impact our population of nearly 500,000 African Americans and 237,000 Latino residents in Arkansas. Arkansas is also home to more than 50,000 Asians, 31,000 Native Americans, 12,000 Pacific Islanders and 67,000 residents who have a multiracial background.

There is a wealth of resources to learn more about structural racism, including: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (https://newjimcrow.com/), Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein and Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi. There are also data resources such as the National Equity Atlas; racial equity-focused research from organizations like the Urban Institute; tools for learning and change such as those available at Racial Equity Tools, and personal narratives from writers such as Ta-Nehisi Coates.





INDICATORS
Access to Quality Seats for Infants and Toddlers
Access to Quality Childcare Seats for Preschoolers
Grade 3 Reading
Grade 8 Math
Graduation Rate
Remediation Rate
Adults with a High School Degree
Adults with a Bachelor's Degree or Higher
Adults Pursuing Further Education
Infant Mortality
Early Prenatal Care
Overweight or Obese Students
Student Drug Usage
Overweight or Obese Adults
Physically Inactive Adults
Smoking Rate
Flouridated Water
Insurance Coverage Rates
Oral Health
Life Expectancy
Routine Check-ups
Births to Teens
Female-headed Households
Children Living in Poverty
People Living in Poverty
Elderly Living in Poverty
Median Household Income
Unemployment Rate
Homeownership Rate
Child Abuse and Neglect
Access to Financial Services
Food Insecurity
Incarceration Rate
Homelessness
Change in Total Jobs
Housing Affordability - Owning
Housing Affordability - Renting
Households Below ALICE Threshold
Voter Participation Rate
Charitable Giving
Volunteering
Group Participation
Connection to Neighbors
Local Voting
Change in Population
Change in Population by Race/Ethnicity
Change in Population by Age
Adults with a High School Degree
Adults with a Bachelor's Degree or Higher
Female-headed Households
Children Living in Poverty
People Living in Poverty
Elderly Living in Poverty
Median Household Income
Unemployment Rate
Homeownership Rate
Incarceration Rate
Change in Population by Race/Ethnicity


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