Racial and ethnic disparities exist in Brookline, though the data don’t always paint a clear picture due to small sample sizes.
Education is one area where the problem is clear. Reading proficiently by 3rd grade is a key milestone, yet just 32% of African American students met it, compared to 74% of white, 71% of Asian and 63% of Latino students. By graduation, the disparities have lessened, with graduation rates of 98% among Asian, 96% among white, 91% among Hispanic and 86% among African American students.
While we might be tempted to focus on the performance of students or student groups, we know that historic and continuing systems of discrimination created and perpetuate these unequal outcomes. Neighborhoods and schools in the U.S. tend to be racially segregated, with wealthier residents and more resources concentrated in whiter neighborhoods and schools.
In the “Why do disparities exist” section of our indicator write-ups, we discuss some of the historical and current policies driving unequal outcomes on metrics across dimensions of well-being, including redlining, employment discrimination, unequal access to financial services and capital, education systems that fail to equitably serve all populations, inadequate health care delivery, and unjust policies and practices in policing and criminal justice leading to a gap in incarceration rates. These and many other policies inhibited the transfer of wealth from generation to generation and continue to limit people of color today.
We hope these connections inspire you to further research the topics of history and racial equity and learn from the growing body of evidence and thinking in order to shape change for the better in Brookline and across our nation.
