2015/03/22 – More of the nation’s blacks and Latinos have health coverage and fewer are victims of crime, but in overall wealth and employment there are stark disparities compared to whites, according to the newly released State Of Black America 2015.

“There is that America that is too black and too brown – which seems to be stuck on the other side of this great American divide,” said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, which issues the annual report.

“I must use the word crisis,” Morial said at a Washington, D.C. press conference Thursday. He cited that 7 metro areas in the country had a 20 percent rate of black unemployment.

“As this recovery develops, too many people are left behind,” said Morial. Though blacks and Latinos are graduating from high school and entering college at historic rates, higher education is not automatically a “great equalizer,” especially for African Americans, Morial stated. Blacks with college degrees still had higher unemployment rates than whites.

The report creates an “equality index” using certain measurements to compare the well-being of black and Latinos to whites in the areas of economics, health, education, the justice system and civic engagement.

With 100 being total equity, the overall black index was 72.2, compared with 71.5 for 2014.

One of the greatest disparities is in overall net worth – it was $6,000 for blacks, $7,000 for Hispanics and over $110,000 for whites.

The Hispanic equality index in 2015 went up to 77.7 percent compared to 75.8 percent a year ago. Latinos made modest gains in all areas except civic engagement.

On race and social justice, Morial noted “there are Fergusons here, there and everywhere.”

“I’d like to be able to say that violence by the police or us against us is a thing of the past…the reality is that we cannot.”

Source: NBC News