By Nikki Weinstein
FOCUS Director of Policy and Community Engagement

There are people who will try to tell you that affirmative action is past its time.  They are wrong.  We, as a society, still need affirmative action. Although women and people of color have come a long way in the decades since the Civil Rights Act was passed, discrimination persists in Missouri. Evidence of this is seen in the race and gender gaps in wages, education, home ownership, and business which continue to plague Missouri:

• The St. Louis region’s Black graduation rate in 2000 was 73.4 percent, while the region’s White graduation rate was 85.5%.[1]
• Gaps in employment are also clear. In 2006, at 13.7 percent, the unemployment rate for Blacks in the St. Louis region is more than three times the 4.3 percent rate for Whites.[2]
• Wages lag across the board for women and people of color. In 2006, Black men earned 72 percent of the income of White men, Hispanic men 57.5 percent. White women earned 73.5 percent of White men with Black and Hispanic women earning 63.6 percent and 51.7 percent respectively.[3]
• The St. Louis region’s Black median household income in 2000 was $27,310, and the region’s White household income was $48,708.[4]
• The region’s Black homeownership rate in 2000 was 48%, and the region’s White home ownership rate was 77%.[5]
• Further, women- and minority-owned businesses continue to receive a disproportionately small number of government and private contracts. In 2002, minority business firms in Missouri received 7.1 percent compared to the 17 percent nationally of contracts to minority firms.[6]

These statistics do not represent the circumstances of one or two individuals, but rather entire groups of people. This indicates an institutional situation, a situation that a continued affirmative action policy can attempt to rectify.

[1] RegionWise. Social Justice and Racial Equality. Retrieved at http://www.regionwise.org/main/uploads/3163Chapter7.pdf on 2/22/08.

[2] East West Gateway Council of Governments (2006). “Where We Stand.” 6th Edition.

[3] U.S. Current Population Survey and the National Committee on Pay Equity, retrieved at http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0882775.html on 2/22/08.

[4] RegionWise. Social Justice and Racial Equality. Retrieved at http://www.regionwise.org/main/uploads/3163Chapter7.pdf on 2/22/08.

[5] RegionWise. Social Justice and Racial Equality. Retrieved at http://www.regionwise.org/main/uploads/3163Chapter7.pdf on 2/22/08.

[6] Missouri People, Last Update: November 2, 2006, Population of Missouri, U.S. Census Bureau, June 7, 2006.