US blacks fall in ‘equality index’

US: An annual report shows that Black Americans have slid down on an equality index in comparison to their white counterparts than they did last year.

The Equality Index in 2011 stands at 71.5% compared to a revised index last year of 72.1%, the National Urban League (NUL) said as it released its 35th annual report, called The State of Black America.

The index has chartered growing inequality since the Equality Index was introduced in 2005. The African-American has less access to health insurance, homeownership, income and loans, and education, as compared to 2010, AFP quoting the report released on Thursday.

The drop has largely been blamed on the slumping US economy, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930s, the NUL president Marc Morial said.

With every downturn in the economy, urban and minority communities fall further and further behind,” he said. For the second year, the report also gave Hispanics their own equality index rating, which rose slightly compared to last year — from 76.6 percent to 76.8 percent.

Presstv