To what extent have ethnic minorities made social and economic progress in the USA?

Ethnic minorities in the USA have many social and economic inequalities, but the government has been working to improve the situation. This essay will investigate to what extent ethnic minorities in the USA have made social and economic progress.

Ethnic minorities are groups of people whose race, religion, and/or culture are different from the majority of the people in the place where they live. Ethnic minorities in the USA are African Americans or Blacks, who make up 13% of the population; Asian and Pacific Islanders or APIs, who make up 4% of the population; Hispanics, who make up 14% of the population; and Native Americans, who make up 1% of the population. Whites are the ethnic majority of the USA, making up 68% of the population. Social inequalities are inequalities in housing, health, education and crime. Economic inequalities are inequalities in income, employment and poverty.

One of the policies implemented by the American government is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF. It is also commonly known as welfare. TANF is a programme for families with low incomes and children under 18 years old. It helps to provide funding for expenses such as food, shelter and utilities, but not for healthcare. TANF benefits Blacks the most, 80.9% of TANF receivers being Black. Between 1995 and 2001, the number of Blacks in poverty was more than halved. This shows that as a result of TANF, which was launched in 1996, economic progress has been made by ethnic minorities in the USA to some extent.

Another set of programmes introduced by the government to improve social and economic equality in the USA are Affirmative Action Programmes, or AAPs. These are also known as positive discrimination. AAPs were created to improve opportunities for ethnic minorities. Quotas were put in place for companies to meet; so many ethnic minorities had to be employed by the business to meet the quota. This improves ethnic minority employment rates. When AAPs ended after Proposition 209 in California in 1996, a lot of progress was reversed. The number of Black, Hispanic and Native American admissions to Berkeley fell by 61% and UCLA admissions by 36%. Therefore, AAPs were very effective in making social and economic progress, but they didn’t work very well long-term. This means that AAPs made social and economic progress for ethnic minorities to some extent.

Cubans, who belong to the Hispanic group, and APIs have a lot more social and economic equality than other ethnic minority groups. Cubans and APIs do extremely well in business and education. In Florida, which is where most Cubans settle, has had a very good economy, and is perfect for Cubans to open small businesses, which many do. Asians have a very strong ambitious drive which helps them progress in their education and careers faster than other ethnic groups. Some White parents refuse to send their children to schools highly populated by Asians because they don’t believe their children will be able to keep up with them. APIs are the only ethnic group whose percentage of the population is lower than their percentage of the University of California population. 4% of the American population are APIs, while 31% of UC students are APIs. The closest competition to this is Whites with 68% of the American population and 58% of the UC population. Therefore, both social and economic equality has been achieved to great extent for Cubans and APIs.

However, total equality in the USA is still a long way away, and the government will have to work hard to improve policies on social and economic progress for ethnic minorities in the USA.

TANF, for example, has several problems such as single parents being forced to find work instead of spending time with their children, which has been recently shown to lessen educational achievement in the UK. The USA is similar. Parents would also have to find childcare and pay for it. This affects Blacks more than any other ethnic group because they utilise TANF the most. 40% of former TANF receivers are still unemployed and those with jobs often remain in unskilled, low paid work. 0.3% of TANF receivers are Asians, 1.3% are Hispanic and 80.9% are Black. Therefore, problems with TANF create social and economic problems for ethnic minorities in the USA and progress is held back by these imperfections.

AAPs have problems as well. It can be argued that AAPs lead to reverse discrimination which favoured one ethnic group (Blacks) over all others. When AAPs ended, all progress was destroyed. There are now more Black people in poverty than any other ethnic group. 22.7% of Blacks lived in poverty in 2001, and it can be argued that Blacks became dependent on AAPs and would have developed more efficiently without them. Therefore, as a result of AAPs, there as been economic progress as a result of AAPs to little extent for ethnic minorities in the USA.

Although Black unemployment rates fell between 1990 and 2000, they rose again between 2000 and 2003. In 1990, 11.3% of Blacks were unemployed, which fell to 7.8% in 2000 and rose again to 10.8% in 2003. The decline was much more gradual than the descent, and if trends were followed, as is likely in today’s economic climate, any small amount of progress made would be quickly undone. Therefore, economic progress has been made by ethnic minorities in the USA to little extent.

According to the US Census Bureau, 26.4% of families with incomes under $20000 were Black, 18.9% were Hispanic and 12.3% were APIs. This is disproportionate to the population, 13% of which are Black, 14% are Hispanic and 4% are APIs. 68% of the population are White, while only 14.3% of families with incomes under $20000 are White. This shows that economic equality in the USA has not been achieved to any extent as Whites are still far more economically advanced than any other ethnic group.

Educational attainment in the Hispanic community is very low compared to other ethnic groups. Many more Hispanics drop out of high school and fewer go on to receive college degrees. 43% of Hispanics drop out of high school and just 15.6% achieve college degrees. For Whites, this is the opposite. 15.1% of Whites drop out of high school, while 34.1% go on to receive college degrees. Therefore, social equality in education has been achieved to little extent in the USA.

Ethnic minorities have great difficulty in getting good quality, affordable housing. Many Hispanics are quoted higher rates than other groups, and both Blacks and Hispanics are often not shown as many properties as White buyers. They are told that they have seen all the available property, when this is untrue. More than double the amount of Hispanics as Whites make complaints about the quality of their housing. Therefore, social progress in housing has been achieved to little extent in housing in the USA.

Although a lot of progress has been made in social and economic inequality in the USA; there is still a long way to go. There is still much more to do to improve housing, education, income, poverty and employment, but much has been done. Therefore, ethnic minorities have made social and economic progress to some extent, but this is limited and gradual.