Report: 90% of African-Americans & Latinos Isolated in the Lowest 'Opportunity' Neighborhoods(MA)

[The Straight Story]

The Massachusetts Opportunity Mapping Initiative assessed how low-income groups and racial, ethnic and immigrant populations are distributed in the Commonwealth's "geography of opportunity." The study used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and extensive data sets, including U.S. Census data from 2000. Some key findings of the report include:

* Isolation from opportunity along racial lines is very evident in Massachusetts. More than 90 percent of African American and Latino households in 2000 were isolated in the lowest opportunity neighborhoods in the Commonwealth, compared to 56 percent of Asian households and 31 percent of White, non-Latino households.

* Racial isolation into low-opportunity neighborhoods is far more pronounced than class-based segregation into these low-opportunity communities. Ninety-five percent of low-income Latino households, 93 percent of low-income African-Americans households and 71 percent of low-income Asian households were found in low-opportunity neighborhoods in Massachusetts in 2000, compared to 43 percent of low-income White, non-Latino households.

* Non-native U.S. residents from Africa and Latin America were far more likely to be concentrated in low-opportunity neighborhoods in Massachusetts, compared to immigrants from Europe or Asia. Seventy percent of African-born and Latin American-born households were concentrated in the state's low-opportunity neighborhoods in 2000, compared to 42 percent of European-born households and 46 percent of Asian-born households.

Harvard Law School's Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice was a co-sponsor of the launch. The Institute was founded by Executive Director Charles Ogletree to continue the unfinished work of Charles Hamilton

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