UCLA Releases The State of Black California 2024 Report

The University of California, Los Angeles has recently released a new report, The State of Black California 2024, which assesses the progress of Black residents of California from 2000 to 2020. The paper is part of the university’s Black Policy Project, an initiative overseen by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. Using United States Census data, the authors created an equity index to measure the overall socioeconomic outcomes of Black Californians in the areas of economics, housing, health, education, criminal justice, and civic engagement. The authors used an equity index score of 1.00 for White residents to serve as a baseline. Compared to all other measured racial groups, Black Americans scored the lowest at an equity index of just 0.69 in 2020; barely an increase from the 0.66 score measured in 2000. The authors write that at this rate of progress, “it would take nearly 248 years to close the gap between Black and White Californians.” The report found that Black Californians made the most progress in the civic engagement category with an equity index score of 1.23 – meaning Black Californians’ participation in civic engagement is higher than that of their White neighbors. The authors state...