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January 22, 2015

Racial disparities remain in Pittsburgh, report says

Stark racial disparities remain in Pittsburgh, according to a report released last week by the Center on Race and Social Problems (CRSP) in the School of Social Work.

“Pittsburgh’s Racial Demographics 2015: Differences and Disparities” is being released at “a time when disparities are taking center stage” in the U.S. policy debate, said Larry E. Davis, dean of the school and director of the center. And yet, he noted, since the last report, in 2007, “there has been relatively little change in the quality of life for those living in Pittsburgh.”

The report, which took two years to compile from census data and other survey material, covers CRSP’s seven focal areas: families, youth and the elderly; education; economics; interracial group relations; health; mental health, and criminal justice.

“Our goal at the center is to enlighten people,” Davis said, noting that the report neither proposed explanations for the continuing disparities among the races in Pittsburgh nor posited solutions. Instead, the latest compilation of statistical comparisons may be useful for nonprofits seeking to bolster grant proposals, for instance, and for the city to undertake fresh approaches to the issue of racial disparities.

“Many Americans are uncomfortable talking about race and think that maybe we are in a post-racial society,” said Ralph Bangs, CRSP associate director (and former director). “We think Pittsburghers … should understand that we are not a post-racial society; there are large disparities and we need to talk about race.”

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Among the conclusions:

Population diversity

• Of U.S. metropolitan areas with a population of more than 1 million, Pittsburgh continues to have the whitest metro area.

• Four percent or less of the white and black population in the Pittsburgh area is foreign-born compared to more than 70 percent of the Asian population and more than 20 percent of the Hispanic population.

• Less than 8 percent of whites and blacks in the Pittsburgh area and nation speak a language other than English at home compared to more than 76 percent of Asians and more than 39 percent of Hispanics.

Economics

• White and Asian households had the highest incomes in the Pittsburgh area and nation.

• One-third of blacks, one-quarter of Hispanics, one-fifth of Asians and one-sixth of whites live in poverty in the City of Pittsburgh.

• Whites make up the highest percentage of workers who take a car, truck or van to work in the Pittsburgh area and nation. Blacks have the highest rates for using public transportation to get to work. Asians make up the highest percentage who walked to work.

Interracial group relations

• Blacks continue to be the most segregated minority group in the Pittsburgh area and the nation. Even though Asians are the least segregated minority group in the nation, 41 percent of Asians or whites would have to relocate to be equally distributed in Pittsburgh.

• Over the past three decades, racial residential segregation in the Pittsburgh area and the nation has declined somewhat.

• The typical white student in the Pittsburgh area attends a school where 90 percent of the student body is white and the majority of the student body is not poor. The typical black student in the Pittsburgh area attends a school where half of the students are black and the majority of students are poor.

• More than one-third (37 percent) of non-black residents in the Pittsburgh area believe that their neighborhood or community is not racially diverse. Only 18 percent of black residents thought their neighborhood or community was not at all diverse.

• A much higher share of non-blacks (86.7 percent) than blacks (62 percent) in the Pittsburgh region think that their neighborhood or community is a good, very good or excellent place to live.

• A much higher share of blacks (41.9 percent) than non-blacks (18.1 percent) in the Pittsburgh region think that police do a fair or poor job of protecting people in their neighborhood.

Families, youth and elderly

• The percentage of black two-parent families is lower in the Pittsburgh area (26 percent) than in the nation (37 percent), and the percentage of black, single, female-headed families with children is higher here (62.7 percent) than in the nation (54.4 percent).

• Black men and women ages 18-44 represent the highest rates of those never-married in the Pittsburgh area (70.5 and 73 percent, respectively) and nation (63.9 and 62.3 percent, respectively).

Education

• Preschool enrollment rates are much higher in the City of Pittsburgh (for blacks, 47.5 percent; for whites, 62.8 percent) than in the nation (for blacks, 41 percent; for whites, 44.7 percent). However, based on those numbers, racial disparities in preschool enrollment are greater in Pittsburgh than in the nation.

• In Pittsburgh Public Schools, even after many low-skill students had dropped out, 24 percent of white, 59 percent of black, 54 percent of Asian and 41 percent of Hispanic students in 11th grade were not proficient in reading.

• Eighty percent of white females, 76 percent of white males, 69 percent of black females and 58 percent of black males graduate from Pittsburgh Public Schools within four years of entering ninth grade.

Health and mental health

• In the Pittsburgh region, where figures for Hispanics were not available, life expectancy is 78.6 years for whites and 72.4 years for blacks.

• Black infant mortality and low birth-weight rates are much higher than white rates in the Pittsburgh area and the nation. In Allegheny County, black infant mortality is 13.8 per 1,000 live births, while white infant mortality is 3.7 per 1,000 live births. In the U.S. as a whole, the rates are 11.6 and 5.1, respectively.

• The black birthrate for girls ages 15-17 in Allegheny County is about seven times the white rate.

• The black birthrate for girls ages 18-19 in the county is six times the white rate. Teen birthrates have declined substantially over the last 20 years, from 6.18 percent to 2.66 percent.

• Death rates (age-adjusted deaths per 100,000 population) from cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes are much higher for blacks than other racial groups in the Pittsburgh area and the nation.

The death rate for black males was 362.9 in the county and 374.5 in the nation, compared to 298.4 in the county and 281.1 in the U.S. In the U.S. the death rate for Asian males was 175.6 and for Hispanic males, 213.8.

Among women, blacks had the highest cardiovascular disease death rates, 268.7, in the county and in the U.S., 263.9. White women had a rate of 197.2 in Allegheny County and 193.5 in the U.S. The death rate for Asian women in the U.S. was 123.4; for Hispanic women, 149.6.

Men had higher death rates from cancer than women. And black men had a higher death rate (274.5 in Allegheny County, 271.1 in the U.S.) than white men (221 in Allegheny County, 212.6 in the U.S.) or for Asian men (131 in the U.S.) or Hispanic men (149.4 in the U.S.)

The cancer death rate for black women was 201.4 in Allegheny County, 171.4 in the U.S., compared with 150.2 in the county and 150.6 in the U.S. for white women. The cancer death rate for Asian women in the U.S. was 93.5 and 99.4 for Hispanic women.

The diabetes death rate for black men was 33.8 in Allegheny County, 44.6 in the nation. For white men, the rate was 19.6 in Allegheny County, 22.3 in the U.S. The diabetes death rate for Asian men in the U.S. was 18; for Hispanic men, 31.2.

For black women, the death rate from diabetes was 28.3 in Allegheny County and 35.9 in the U.S. For white women, the diabetes death rate was 12.8 in Allegheny County, 14.9 in the U.S.

Nationwide, Asian women had the lowest death rates from diabetes, 13.6. The rate for Hispanic women in the U.S. was 23.7.

No death rate data for Asian or Hispanic men or women in Allegheny County were included in the report.

• Whites have much higher suicide death rates than other racial groups, but the suicide rate of 19.5 for white males and 4.7 for white females in Allegheny County was lower than the U.S. rate.

According to the report, the number of deaths from suicide for other racial groups in the county was too small to calculate rates.

Suicide death rates in the U.S. were 24.2 for white men, 9.4 for black men, 9.5 for Asian men and 9.9 for Hispanic men.

For white women, the rate was 6.2, compared with 1.9 for black women, 3.4 for Asian women and 2.1 for Hispanic women.

• A much higher share of blacks (15.1 percent) than non-blacks (8.1 percent) lacks health insurance in Allegheny County.

• Significantly more whites than blacks use the mental health and drug abuse services provided by the Allegheny County Department of Human Services. Whites made up 70.9 percent, and blacks 27.7 percent, of mental health clients, and 72.4 and 26.9 percent of the drug-abuse clientele, respectively, in 2013.

Criminal justice

• Whites represent the largest number of total youth arrests in the Pittsburgh metro region (4,953 white juveniles versus 3,842 black juveniles) and the nation (653,949 white juveniles versus 322,602 black juveniles). Blacks represent the largest number of total youth arrests in the City of Pittsburgh (258 whites versus 1,090 blacks) and Allegheny County (2,361 whites versus 3,045 blacks).

• All of the juvenile murder victims in the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County in 2012 were black. The majority of juvenile murder victims in the nation were white.

• Whites represent the largest number of total adult arrests in Allegheny County, the Pittsburgh metro region and the nation. Blacks and whites have about the same number of total adult arrests in the City of Pittsburgh.

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Blacks and whites have comparable drug use and sale rates, according to the report.

Nationally, black youths were arrested for drug violations at a slightly higher rate than whites, but in Pittsburgh they were arrested at a rate nearly five times greater, and in Allegheny County at a rate nine times greater than white youths.

In 2012, in the City of Pittsburgh, 28 white youths, 110 black youths and two Asian youths were arrested for drug violations. In Allegheny County the numbers were 235 white, 216 black and four Asian youths.

Comparably, 77,608 white, 24,684 black and 1,360 Asian youths were arrested for drug violations nationwide.

Nationally, black adults were arrested for drug violations at three times the rate for white adults. In Pittsburgh, black adults were arrested at a rate four times greater, and in the county five times greater than white adults.

In 2012 in Pittsburgh, 1,101 white, 1,326 black and seven Asian adults were arrested for drug violations. In the county, 3,822 white, 2,521 black and 19 Asian adults were arrested. Nationally, drug arrests included 723,590 white, 348,230 black and 11,185 Asian adults.

• In general, racial disparities in criminal justice statistics are greater in the Pittsburgh area than in the nation.

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These disparities have consequences, noted CRSP’s Bangs. “In general, we didn’t find any substantial changes in economic or educational disparities” from 2007 to today, he said.

The Pittsburgh Promise program, which offers $40,000 in college scholarships to city school students who graduate with a certain grade point average and level of attendance, may not be helping as much as was hoped, Dean Davis said.

Blacks lag behind other races in preschool attendance and other educational opportunities in majority-black neighborhoods.

“Those who have the background to take advantage of the opportunity [will benefit]. Merely providing the opportunity is insufficient. Preparing the population to have the capacity to take advantage of the opportunity is important.”

There must be more honest talk of race, not just of the happier topic of diversity, he said. “We’re not going to celebrate our way to social justice,” Davis concluded.

“It is our hope today that this report will be used to change the disparities here and across the United States.”

The full report can be found at www.crsp.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/REPORT.pdf.

—Marty Levine