Minnesota Social Justice

Families of color are disproportionately represented in the child welfare system and are more likely to experience negative outcomes compared to white families.

For instance, children of color are more likely to experience multiple placements, less likely to be reunited with their birth families, more likely to experience group care, less likely to establish a permanent placement and more likely to experience poor social, behavioral and educational outcomes.

Despite considerable job growth for workers of other races, unemployment disparities continue to exist across Minnesota. While most workers of color in Minnesota had unemployment rates lower than their national averages, all were much higher than the white unemployment rate. Minnesota’s white unemployment rate was 2.9% in 2018, which was 1.3 points below the national rate. At 13.9%, American Indians had the highest unemployment rate in the state, almost five times the rate for whites, and more than 5% above the U.S. rate. likewise, rates were more than twice as high for lack or African Americans as for whites

Rates of food insecurity have varied week to week, but, by July 21, 37% of Minnesotans reported some level of food insecurity. [1] Not all Minnesotans are impacted equally though. Black and Hispanic/Latino Minnesotans reported food insecurity at more than double the rate of White residents (83% of Black residents and 70% of Hispanic residents, compared to 32% of White residents). Fifty-two percent of Asian residents and 55% of people of other races, including American Indians, also reported some degree of food insecurity.

Poverty rates are yet another example of the “Minnesota paradox”: as a state we are better off than the rest of the nation, but this relative good fortune does not extend to Minnesota’s populations of color. At 27 percent, the poverty rate among Minnesotans of color is high. Poverty rates are especially high among certain groups including African Americans (38%), American Indians (32%), and Hispanics (26%). Not only are poverty rates among Minnesota’s populations of color high relative to that of non-Hispanic whites in Minnesota (8%), they are actually high relative to those among their counterparts nationwide. A special comparison that we did of more robust three-year data showed that Minnesota’s poverty rate for Asians ranks among the worst of all states – 43rd of 50, as does our poverty ranking for African Americans (44th) and American Indians (46th).

Poverty Status in the past 12 months.