The color of our future: Caucuses and children



color of our future: Caucuses and childrenCharles Bruner and Lionel Foster 8:30 p.m. CST December 7, 2015 While four-fifths of our nation’s seniors are white, non-Hispanic, half our youngest members (children birth through four) are of color. Diversity is the future of our country. In an increasingly multi-national economy, this can be a strength — but only if all children have full opportunities to succeed.Right now, the facts about the challenges facing children and of families of color are sobering and require much more attention and action — starting with presidential candidates setting out their agendas to address these issues.One-third of young children of color live in families with incomes below the poverty level, double the rate for white, non-Hispanic kids. Almost one in 10 African American fathers of those children is in prison or jail, and more than twice that number are involved in the criminal justice system — five times the rate among the rest of the population. Perhaps most disconcerting, while 8 percent of white, non-Hispanic young children live in the nation’s poorest neighborhoods, 38 percent of African American young children, 29 percent of Hispanic children, and 32 percent of native American children live there, where access to opportunity is most circumscribed.Race, place?and poverty are intertwined,?and all need to be addressed as we shape policies for the future. While we may aspire to live in a post-racial society, there remain institutional and structural barriers that need to be addressed to ensure equity of opportunity. There is “disproportionate over-representation” of children of color in our child welfare and juvenile justice systems, and of adults of color in our criminal justice system. Even when black and Hispanic families have the same income as white, non-Hispanic families, they are less likely to be able to move into middle-class neighborhoods. Poorer neighborhoods do not have the same recreational, commercial, educational?and economic opportunities as more affluent ones.Iowa has the opportunity to raise these important issues — essential to our country’s future — as part of our role as the first in the nation in the 2016 presidential election campaign. This requires us to raise these issues with all candidates as they campaign in Iowa and to work to ensure they are part of debates and forums that occur. We must hold all candidates to be vocal, and not silent, on what they will do to ensure that all children and families can achieve the American dream.While Iowa has a relatively smaller proportion of people of color than the country as a whole, Iowa is becoming more diverse and has its own challenges to achieving equity. It is of particular importance for Iowa to be a leader in raising and addressing these issues. Two of Iowa’s cities, Des Moines and Waterloo, have been designated as among the 10 worst cities for African-Americans to live. Iowa’s incarceration rate of African-Americans is one of the highest in the nation, as is its placement of African-American youth into foster care.? Iowa will not achieve future prosperity without addressing disparities in opportunity and outcome by race, place and poverty.Angela Glover Blackwell may have said it best. At the 25th Anniversary of Kids Count, which recently provided a picture of the gaps in well-being experienced by Hispanic, African-American?and Native American children compared with whites, she stated the challenge simply, “If children of color cannot grow up to become part of the middle class, there will not be one.”Eight years ago, Iowa played a key role in electing the first African-American president. Today, we need to play a key role in closing racial inequities and disparities that still exist in our society.Charles Bruner?is former director of the Child and Family Policy Center in Des Moines. Lionel Foster of Mason City is a board member of the Child and Family Policy Center. Contact:?cbruner@ ................
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