The Kellogg Foundation conducted the first known national survey of adults who work directly with minority children at the community level and found that these children have less opportunity to access a range of services than their white counterparts.
The nationwide poll conducted in April included 2,028 adults who work as teachers, childcare providers, health care workers, social workers and law enforcement officials. Overall, researchers found that the respondents viewed minority children as being not as likely as white children to have access to high-quality health care, education, safe neighborhoods and adequate support from the communities where they live.
The young children referred to in the survey are those 8 years old and younger. White children have “lots of opportunity” to play in violence-free homes and neighborhoods according to 59 percent of the professionals polled. Only 36 percent of Hispanic children, 37 percent of African-American children and 42 percent about Native American children have the same opportunity according to the same group.
“These are adults whose jobs allow them to more easily see the disparities between whites and minorities and can offer a closer look into the results of racism,” says Gail Christopher, Vice President of the Kellogg Foundation. Christopher says the results are communities with unequal systems of income and services.
“So you have major, major pockets of poverty in this country, many of which are tied to race,” Christopher said. “Not all, but many of them are.”
Fifty-five percent of respondents viewed young white children as having good access to high-quality health care, while 41 percent said the same of Hispanic, Arab American and American Indian/Alaska Native children and 45 percent said the same for African-American and Asian-American/Pacific Islander children.
In May, the Kellogg Foundation announced a five-year, $75 million initiative with the goal of undoing the effects of racial inequalities on children in poor communities. It is the most recent effort of the group, founded in 1930 by the breakfast cereal pioneer, to help vulnerable children who face poverty and discrimination.
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