WHY DOES THE NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE PUBLISH AN EQUALITY INDEX? Economic empowerment is the central theme of the National Urban League’s mission. The Equality Index gives us a way to document progress toward this mission for Black and Hispanic Americans relative to whites.WHAT IS THE EQUALITY INDEX TRYING TO DO?Imagine if we were to summarize how well African Americans and Hispanics are doing compared to whites in the areas of economics, health, education, social justice and civic engagement, and represent that by a pie. The Equality Index measures the share of the pie that African Americans and Hispanics get. Whites are used as the benchmark because the history of race in America has created advantages for whites that continue to persist in many of the outcomes being measured. (See Figure 2)THE 2017 EQUALITY INDEX OF BLACK AMERICA IS 72.3%. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?That means that rather than having a whole pie (100%), which would mean full equality with whites in 2017, African Americans are missing about 28% of the pie. Similarly, a Hispanic Index of 78.4% indicates that more than 20% of the pie is missing for Hispanics. (See Figure 1)IS IT POSSIBLE TO SEE HOW WELL AFRICAN AMERICANS AND LATINOS ARE DOING IN EACH OF THE CATEGORIES?Yes. We show this in the tables included with the Equality Index. We estimate an index for each category that can be interpreted in the same way as the total Equality Index. So, an index of 56.5% for the economics category for African Americans in 2017 means that African Americans are missing close to half of the economics mini-pie, as reflected in the table summarizing the 2017 Equality IndexTM and the index in each category for African Americans and Hispanics. (See Figure 3)IT DOESN’T APPEAR THERE’S BEEN MUCH IMPROVEMENT IN THE EQUALITY INDEX—WHAT’S THE POINT?Since the Equality Index is made up of a lot of different parts, improvements in one area are sometimes offset by losses in another area, leaving the overall index unchanged. Change often happens slowly. The Equality Index offers solid evidence of just how slowly change happens, making it an important tool for driving policies needed in the ongoing fight against inequality. 72.3% BLACK100% WHITE78.4% HISPANIC100% WHITEFIGURE 12017 Black–White Equality Index is 72.3% &2017 Hispanic–White Equality Index is 78.4%FIGURE 32017 Equality Index™30%10%10%25%25%FIGURE 2Different Categories that Make Up the Equality Index NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUEUNDERSTANDING THE 2017 EQUALITY INDEX™ Economics 30% Health 25% Education 25% Social Justice 10% Civic Engagement 10%
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