Report cites continued inequality

From the Associated Press:

Barriers to equality pose threats to democracy in the U.S. as the country remains segregated along racial lines and child poverty worsens, according to study made public Tuesday that examines the nation 50 years after the release of the landmark 1968 Kerner Report.

The new report blames U.S. policymakers and elected officials, saying they’re not doing enough to heed the warning on deepening poverty and inequality that was highlighted by the Kerner Commission five decades ago and it lists areas where the country has seen “a lack of or reversal of progress.”

Read the AP story here.

The intersection of poverty and health

A piece at In These Times looks at the disturbing intersection between poverty and health outcomes. Jesse Mechanic, in his piece, reviews several studies showing the links between low-income and bad health, which include lower life expectancy, higher rates of diet-related disease, breathing issues, hypertension and other problems. Much of it is neighborhood-based — wealthier neighborhoods show less health problems than poorer ones — indicating a long-term structural problem.

As he writes:

Many of the poverty-punished, stress-laden neighborhoods examined by Ansell and others are predominantly African American. The impoverishment of black neighborhoods in inner cities was not an accident; these regions were shaped by housing discrimination, redlining, police violence and educational inequality.

The oppressive smog of poverty is a form of structural violence, and—as Ansell puts it–inequality is itself a disease.

And it is one we can address, but choose not to.

 

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