Inequality in Iowa

Iowans don’t have to go far to find prejudice.

Last week marked the passing of an historical day of racial inequality and hope in America. It was 50 years ago that the Little Rock Nine were integrated into Little Rock Central High School. The good news is that these nine students went on to achieve great feats in life. The bad news is that they had to be forcibly integrated against the will of the Governor and many “white citizens’ councils.” This event highlighted the hope of racial integration, the beginning of the civil rights movement and the lingering prejudice of a segregated south.

It would be easy to look at these events and to think “Look how far we’ve come in 50 years!” That might be easier to say if it weren’t for the events in Jena, LA that deal with the same issues of race and inequality. Note: For a complete background on the Jena Six case, click here. Fifty years after the Little Rock Nine, the Jena Six remind us that we still have a long way to go. As much as we would like to think that time has healed all wounds, we would be wrong in that assumption.

Iowans might also try to take comfort by thinking of our geographic distance from these events. It’s easy to assign these events to a bigoted south clinging to its prejudice past. Unfortunately, again, we would be wrong to make such an assumption. You don’t have to go as far as Jena, LA to find racial inequality and an imbalance in race and justice. It’s happening right here in Iowa.

According to a Chicago Tribune article by Howard Witt, “In Iowa, blacks make up just 5 percent of the statewide public school enrollment but account for 22 percent of the students who get suspended.” In fact, the ratio of percentage of black student suspensions to percentage of black student enrollments is higher in Iowa than in any other state.

In grasping for simple explanations, some have put forth the hypothesis that these numbers are more reflective of economic conditions than race. It is true that 31.6% of African Americans in Iowa live at or below the poverty level. The overall rate of poverty for all of Iowa is 9.1%. Wouldn’t it be convenient to simply dismiss the results to the impact of poverty? However, according to the article by Howard Witt, when you hold the data constant for income, the results are the same, a higher proportion of blacks punished severely than white students.

Another possible explanation put forth is that, blacks commit more heinous acts in school than do whites. This simply is not true. The data shows that for the same action, blacks are more severely punished than whites. You can listen to Howard Witt discuss this story here.

As Iowans we might try to comfort ourselves by assigning these problems to “the school system,” however, there is a larger issue here, one that involves all of society.

According to a study by The Sentencing Project, the black-to-white incarceration ratio in Iowa is 13.6-to-1. That’s 13.6 black people incarcerated for every white person. Again, Iowa has the dubious honor of holding the highest ratio of incarceration inequality in the nation.

And of course, this racial inequality doesn’t just apply to blacks but extends to Hispanics as well. For every 100,000 white people in Iowa, 309 will end up in jail or prison. However for every 100,000 black people, 4,200 will go to jail. And for every 100,000 Hispanics in Iowa, 764 will go to jail, more than a 2:1 ratio over whites. This trend is what some are calling the “School-to-Prison Pipeline.”

What can we do about it?

If you find all of this as disturbing as I do, then I encourage you to take action. Here are a few suggestions.

1. Learn

It might have surprised you to learn that the problem of racial inequality does not belong to another time or another place. The issue is real, it is relevant and it is local. Learn all you can.

Great sources of information include:

· The Iowa Commission on the Status of African Americans (ICSAA). Their mission is to report on the status of Iowans of African-American descent.
· The African American Historical Museum and Cultural Center of Iowa.
· The Iowa Mosaic Diversity Conference, October 15 and 16, 2007.
· The Covenant with Black America. Based on a book by Tavis Smiley, the Covenant with Black America is a national plan of action to address the primary concerns of African Americans today -- from health to housing, from crime to criminal justice, from education to economic parity.

For example, did you know that the unemployment rate for Iowa African Americans was 14.2% in 2000? The overall Iowa unemployment rate at that time was 4.2%.

2. Fund the fix in schools.

According to a report by the NAACP, “Addressing the School-to-Prison Pipeline requires focusing on where it begins: a neglected and under-resourced public education system. Recent research has confirmed what educators have known for quite some time—there are direct correlations between inputs and outputs in schools.”

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to talk to Elizabeth Edwards on the North Carolina model for “No Child Left Behind” and how it differed from the national model promoted by George W. Bush. According to Mrs. Edwards, the difference was that, when North Carolina found schools to be failing, they funded the fix. This is the opposite approach taken by the Bush Administration. You can see the interview regarding No Child Left Behind here.

3. Speak out wherever you can.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” The good news is, if you live in Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state, you have greater access to presidential candidates than people in other states. Use that access. Ask the Republican candidates why they refused to attend a debate on issues important to Hispanics (only John McCain agreed to attend). Ask Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney and John McCain why they refused to debate African-American issues. It was so bad Mike Huckabee commented "I'm embarrassed. There has long been a divide in this country and it doesn't get better when we don't show up."

And don’t let Democrats off of the hook either. Ask them about school funding. Ask them about social justice. Ask them what they intend to do about the disparity in school discipline and sentencing in the judicial system.

Ask all of the candidates about mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug offenses that leave judges with little discretion. Do they support these mandatory sentences, or will they work to see them repealed?


In closing, the most important action you can take to promote equality in Iowa is to get involved. Reading this article is probably a good start.