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 a wide range of indicators that highlight racial and ethnic disparities within such areas of life as Children & Education, Community, Financial Security and Health.

The disparity data reflects the effects of centuries of structural racism in America, starting with the simultaneous genocide of indigenous peoples and enslavement of Africans and moving through the development and institutionalization of racist ideology and policies impacting nearly every facet of life in this country. In the United States, long-standing and far-reaching structural systems have been created and sustained over centuries to hinder access to economic, educational and social opportunities for people of color and their families, while also facilitating greater access to those opportunities for White people and their families.

These 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.

As a result of these policies and systems, we see very large disparities in the indicators included in this section which range from educational levels to poverty and income to homeownership rates. We invite you to explore the data in this section in the context of the structural and systemic racism that underlies these disparities.

In our county of more than 553,000 people, many are impacted. While Lancaster County is 86% white, our population includes about 23,000 African Americans (4%) and 13,000 Asians (2%). In addition, people of Hispanic heritage (considered by the U.S. Census to be an ethnicity, rather than a race) are the fastest growing part of our population and now make up 11% of our residents, or 61,000 people.

We also recommend the following resources to learn more about structural racism: 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
Prekindergarten Participation
Student Performance on Grade 3 English
Student Performance on Grade 8 Math
High School Cohort Graduation Rate
Per-Student Spending
Students Receiving Special Education Services
Rate of Foster Care Admissions
Disengaged Youth
Single-Parent Families by Race/Ethnicity
Plans of High School Graduates
Enrollment in Local Colleges
College Graduation Rates
Brain Drain/Gain
Education Levels of Adults by Race/Ethnicity
Average Charitable Giving
Voter Registration Rate
Voter Participation Rate
Age of Housing Stock
Violent Crime Rate
Incarceration Rate
Incarceration Rate by Race/Ethnicity
Population Density
Air Quality
Water Use
Waterways Impaired by Pollution
Change in Population
Change in Population by Age and Gender
Population by Age
Population by Race/Ethnicity
People with Disabilities
Foreign-Born Population
Language Diversity
Change in Total Jobs
Change in Employment by Sector
Sector Share of Total Jobs
Workers by Occupation
Change in Labor Force
People Entering/Leaving County/Region for Work
Average Salary by Sector
Change in Average Salary Since 2000
Female to Male Earnings Ratio
Employer Size
Change in Number of Businesses by Sector
Change in Total Agricultural Sales
Spending for Local Government
Spending for School Districts
Children Living in Poverty
Children in Poverty by Race/Ethnicity
People Living in Poverty
People Living in Poverty, by Race/Ethnicity
Veterans Living in Poverty
Working Poor
Median Household Income by Household Type
Median Household Income
Median Household Income, by Race/Ethnicity
Living Wage
Unemployment Rate by Race/Ethnicity
Households Receiving SNAP by Race/Ethnicity
Household Receiving Temporary Assistance
Students Eligible for Free/Reduced Price Lunch
Median Home Value
Occupied Housing Units
Homeownership Rate, by Race/Ethnicity
Cost of Homeownership by Race/Ethnicity
Median Rent
Cost of Renting
Households Without Vehicles
Means of Transportation to Work, by Race/Ethnicity
People Without Health Insurance
Early Prenatal Care by Mother's Race/Ethnicity
Health Status
Prevalence of Mental Illness
Adults Who are Overweight or Obese
Mortality Rates
Mortality Rate, by Race/Ethnicity
Fatal Drug Overdoses
Cancer Incidence
Households With Internet Access
High-Tech Jobs
STEM Graduates
Science and Engineering Research and Development
Single-Parent Families by Race/Ethnicity
Education Levels of Adults by Race/Ethnicity
Incarceration Rate by Race/Ethnicity
Population by Race/Ethnicity
Children in Poverty by Race/Ethnicity
People Living in Poverty, by Race/Ethnicity
Median Household Income, by Race/Ethnicity
Unemployment Rate by Race/Ethnicity
Households Receiving SNAP by Race/Ethnicity
Homeownership Rate, by Race/Ethnicity
Cost of Homeownership by Race/Ethnicity
Early Prenatal Care by Mother's Race/Ethnicity


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