Even though the United States is one of the most economically prosperous countries in the world, there are certain groups of people who don’t get to take complete advantage of the benefits of being a citizen of the United States. Recent studies have shown that African American men only earn 61 cents to every dollar earned by a caucasian man in America. This translates to earning only 73% of the salary that a white man earns. Wisconsin senator Andy Gronik says that “the ‘wage gap’ is 27 percentage points between the two races.” So why does this wage gap exist?

According to USA Today, “Lower incomes, educational attainment, and homeownership among black Americans, as well as higher poverty, unemployment, incarceration, and mortality all contribute to racial inequality in the United States.” In order to shed more light on it, USA Today has made a list of five cities which are the worst for Black Americans. And what is most shocking, for us at Penn State Behrend especially, is that Erie is on the top of said list.

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According to the list, Erie is the worst place for Black Americans, with regards to racial inequality across major social and economic outcome measures. Almost 47 percent of black Americans living in Erie live either on or below the national poverty line. Erie’s unemployment rate is quite similar to the national average, which is 5.8 percent. However, out of the unemployed, only 4 percent of white men are unemployed while 25 percent of black men are unemployed.

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Other cities that are mentioned are Peoria IL, Milwaukee - Waukesha - West Allis, WI, Racine, WI and Niles - Benton Harbor, MI. Looking at the pattern, one can determine that this racial inequality is limited to rural areas. Big cities do not seem to have the same patterns, experts said when comparing this report to the similar reports of New York, Washington DC etc., all of which had completely opposite results.

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A Behrend Senior and Arts Administration major, Memourie Cunningham, shared her thoughts on the rankings. Cunningham said “African Americans are restricted when it comes to finding employment, attending established schools/universities, owning homes etc. because of the racial injustice still in America today. Unemployment rates for African Americans are plummeting because they’re not guaranteed the same opportunities solely because of race and discrimination. Erie being a city that doesn’t encourage black success isn’t surprising to me because most of the jobs here just like any larger city requires a degree or a substantial amount of education, so if you exclude certain demographics from receiving higher education, then of course those people will remain stagnant and placed in a category that isn’t well developed or working towards bettering themselves.”

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Hopefully, the situation becomes better because if we are to say we are equal, we should be equal in all measures - economic, racial and fundamental.