Friday, January 16, 2009

Indexing Race in the US at the Dawn of the “Age of Obama”

By Andrew Grant-Thomas, Deputy Director at the Kirwan Institute

Date on which Ireland’s largest bookmaker started paying off bets on Barack Obama as the next president of the United States: October 16, 2008.(1)

Percentage of South Koreans who told Gallup in 2008 that who won the US presidential election would matter to their country: 79%. (2)
Percentage of Mexicans who said this: 35%.

Estimated amount of wealth that people of color could lose as a result of being disproportionately targeted for subprime housing loans: $200 billion.

Number of years it will take for the black-white homeownership gap to close if recent trends continue: 1,664. (3)

Child poverty rates of non-Hispanic whites, African Americans, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Asian Americans and Latinos, respectively, in 2007: 11, 35, 33, 12 and 27 percent. (4)

Year in which the Supreme Court declared bans on “interracial” marriage unconstitutional: 1967.

Percentage growth in the number of interracial marriages between 1960 and 2000: +832%. (5)

Percent of whites, according to a recent ABC News Poll, who think of themselves
first as Americans, rather than as members of a racial group: 87%. (6)

Percent of African Americans who do: 51%.

Rise in the percent of African Americans who think of themselves first as Americans in the last four months: +5%

Percent of Democrats who think Obama will help race relations in the United States: 75%. (7)

Percent of Republicans who think so: 43%.

Proportion of the US population that is non-Hispanic and white: 65 in 100.

Proportion of the last 100 million additions to the US population who are non-Hispanic and white: 34 in 100. (8)
Number of US Senators who are non-Hispanic white men: 78 in 100.

Number of US presidents: 44.

Number of US presidents who have not been white men: 1.

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