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Photo by Zach Frailey via Flickr

In honor of this past Martin Luther King Jr holiday, Huffington Post released a study revealing which states have made racial progress since his “I Have A Dream Speech.” Specifically, the study measures racial integration and racial progress through homeownership, median income, and poverty rates for both blacks and whites.

Racial integration is the process of ending systemic racial segregation while racial progress promotes moral, political, and legal equality of individuals, regardless of their racial characteristics.

Dr. King once said, “I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”

If Dr. King was alive today, he would see that Mississippi has made significant progress over time by being ranked third in the nation for most racial progression.

The study analyzes the level of inequality in each state, including the District of Columbia, to see who has made the most progress. These inequalities range from median annual income, voter turnouts from the 2012 presidential election, and the demographics of homeownership.

The top states that have the lowest gap for median annual income are Vermont, Hawaii, New Mexico, Montana, and Arizona while the areas to have the highest gap are North Dakota, Maine, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and District of Columbia.

According to Meghan Burke, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Illinois Wesleyan University, “States are bound to vary in those inequality levels because of the different demographics, economics, and policies.” Equality for all races in these areas are an ideal goal that will hopefully be reached in the future.

Due to the rising racial tensions between the Blacks and Whites, the study focuses primarily on the equality and integration of these races. Burke states, “Pretending racism and inequality doesn’t exist, or that it can be solved through individual (market) choices, will only continue to grow these already deep inequalities.”

In order to help minorities with the decision of buying a house barriers, such as increased mortgage rates, need to be eliminated. With proper education potential buyers will know what to look for before signing their names on the deed.

Dr. King’s vision for the nation was for equality of all races and to not place judgment on someone based on the color of their skin. America’s future, through Dr. King’s eyes, is slowly getting closer to reaching racial equality and that all men and women are equal.

Photo credit: Washington University Early Emotional Development Program

Young children who come from impoverished communities are more likely to encounter academic obstacles later in life. Recent studies suggest that poverty may have a notable physiological impact on the brains of young children.

On October 28, researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri published a study in JAMA Pediatrics journal linking inhibited brain development to poverty. Children from the ages of six to twelve years old were subjects in the research. They received MRIs that revealed abiding depression in the students who came from impoverished environments.

Results suggested, “Poverty was associated with smaller white and cortical gray matter and hippocampal and amygdala volumes.” Research suggests that the presence of these neurological attributes may directly impair sensory perception, memory and speech, as well as the processing of emotions.

Additionally, a stressful environment and “caregiving support/hostility” were shown to increase the detrimental impact of poverty on the brain.

Researchers judged the quality of parental caregiving by designing a structured waiting task meant to observe the interaction between parent and child. Each child received a brightly wrapped gift and was told that they could open it once their caregiver completed an 8-minute questionnaire. Blind raters coded the parents’ response to their children in the form “Of both supportive (e.g., praising the child for waiting) and hostile (e.g., threats about negative consequences) strategies.”

Researchers at the Washington School of Medicine reached the conclusion that caregiving should be a pronounced public health effort meant to target and correct inadequate brain development in impoverished children. According to the study, “Good parenting” can combat this disadvantage experienced by students of impoverished families.

Charles Nelson, PhD of Boston Children’s Hospital, noted that “Caregiving support/hostility” was more or less arbitrary. In other words, parents of affluent families are not exempt from displaying similar parental faults and issues.

Regardless, the study has important implications for the state of academic achievement of students across various socioeconomic backgrounds in the United States.

Behavioral studies have provided firm evidence for the link between low socioeconomic status and the presence of poor academic achievement. Most notably, a report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) revealed “Postsecondary attendance rates are generally lower for youth from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and those from various racial/ethnic groups…”

Since the beginning of the recession, the number of impoverished students has increased and the negative effects on academic achievement are expected to become increasingly apparent.

The implications of this study lead to many pressing questions: how can these children overcome their disadvantages? And, how can we prove that not everyone is destined to become a product of his or her environment?

Author: Amanda Washington

Nommo Staff

Let the Racial Progress Rise

Poverty May Be Linked to Inadequate Brain Development in Children