Apartheid. USA 1988

[p. 42]

March 7, 1987:

A new report, Poverty Amidst Prosperity: Is New York Dividing Into Two Cities? cites a high incidence of murder, war-time casualties, imprisonment, unemployment and homelessness as the principal cause of the shortage of men in poor black neighborhoods of New York City. The shortage has further contributed to the increase in the number of households led by single black women. Those households, statistics show, are more likely to live below the poverty level than are two-parent households. Published by the Citizen Committee for New York, the report says the city's poorest black neighborhoods contain 14 percent fewer men than women between 20 and 44 years old.

Psychologist professor David Chavis, of New York University and one of the authors of the report, said the shortage of black men reflects the status of blacks in American society. Black men, he said, were ‘six times more likely to be incarcerated and three times more likely to be diagnosed as mentally ill’ than white men. He also said that because of their high unemployment rate, many black men become debilitated, homeless and cut off from their community. Census data, Professor Chavis said, indicated that ‘black men in New York are more difficult to count than illegal aliens’. Joseph Salvo, a demographer with the Department of City Planning said, ‘In a dangerous neighborhood, or in a building where they sell “crack”, the census-taker will stand outside, count the number of apartments and guess how many occupants there are, rather than risk life and limb for an hourly wage.’^63.

63. The New York Times, from a report by Howard W French