Michael got a ticket because of the car accident but, because he lost his job, he is unable to pay the fine. A warrant is issued, and Michael is arrested.
The cards are already stacked against Michael. Black Americans continue to face enormous disparities in the criminal justice system. Black adults are imprisoned in state and federal prisons at more than five times the rate of white adults. And according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, after controlling for available personal and offense characteristics, black men sentenced in federal court received overall sentences 13.4 percent longer than white men and were 23.4 percent less likely to receive probation. Even among defendants who were sentenced to prison, black men received prison terms 4.7 percent longer than white men.
Michael is in jail. Two years pass.
Michael was brutally attacked by another inmate his first week in jail. Even though by all accounts Michael did nothing to provoke the attack, both he and the other guy were charged with felony assault. Michael has been released from prison but now has a felony on his record. He has been unable to find steady work since getting out.
Since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking unemployment by race in 1972, the black unemployment rate has consistently been higher than the white unemployment rate and has generally hovered around twice as high – a persistent disparity often described as the “two-to-one” unemployment gap.
To add insult to injury, substantial earnings disparities remain. In 2025, the median black full-time wage-and-salary worker earned $986 per week, compared with $1,231 for the median white worker – about 80 cents for every dollar earned by white workers.
Michael was recently diagnosed with non-diabetic kidney disease.
The Atlantic magazine reports that “across the United States, black people suffer disproportionately from some of the most devastating health problems, from cancer deaths and diabetes to maternal mortality and preterm births. Although the racial disparity in early death has narrowed in recent decades, black people have the life expectancy, nationwide, that white people had in the 1980s – about three years shorter than the current white life expectancy. African Americans face a greater risk of death at practically every stage of life.”
“In Baltimore, a 20-year gap in life expectancy exists between the city’s poor, largely African American neighborhoods and its wealthier, whiter areas. A baby born in Cheswolde, in Baltimore’s far-northwest corner, can expect to live until age 87. Nine miles away in Clifton-Berea, the life expectancy is 67, roughly the same as that of Rwanda, and 12 years shorter than the American average. Similar disparities exist in other segregated cities, such as Philadelphia and Chicago.”
Michael and Angela are out of options. They move into a government housing facility in a very dangerous, high-crime neighborhood. Their son, James, is now four years old. It’s time for him to head to school.
In 2019, right before the Covid-19 crisis, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) – commonly referred to as The Nation’s Report Card – revealed that 40 percent of 4th graders and 34 percent of 8th graders performed at or above the Proficient level in Math, a level that represents “solid academic performance.” Only 8 percent of 4th graders and 10 percent of 8th graders performed at the Advanced level.
In reading, 37 percent of 4th graders and 36 percent of 8th graders performed at or above the Proficient level. Only 9 percent of 4th graders and 4 percent of 8th graders performed at the Advanced level.
The Basic NAEP level means that the student demonstrated only “partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at each grade.” Only 69 percent of 12th grade students achieved the Basic level in reading and 58 percent of them achieved the Basic level in mathematics. Only 43 percent of them achieved the Basic level in U.S. History.
Breaking the numbers down by race is absolutely devastating. In 4th grade math, there was a 32-point score gap between white and black students (51 percent to 19 percent) and a 25-point score gap between white and Hispanic students (51 percent to 26 percent). In 8th grade math, there was a 31-point score gap between white and black students (44 percent to 13 percent) and a 24-point score gap between white and Hispanic students (44 percent to 20 percent).
In 4th grade reading, there was a 27-point score gap between white and black students (47 percent to 20 percent) and a 24-point score gap between white and Hispanic students (47 percent to 23 percent). In 8th grade reading, there was a 27-point score gap between white and black students (45 percent to 18 percent) and a 22-point score gap between white and Hispanic students (45 percent to 23 percent).
That was then. You just won’t believe what the numbers are post-pandemic.
In October 2022, the NAEP released its first results since Covid-19. Even though the federal government sent schools $190 billion in pandemic relief funds – to be used for interventions like increased tutoring, expanded summer school, and after-school programs – the math scores of 4th and 8th grade students showed the steepest decline in the history of the assessment.
In Math, just 26 percent of 8th graders performed at or above the Proficient level, a drop of eight percentage points, and only 36 percent of 4th graders performed at or above the Proficient level, a drop of five percentage points. In reading, only 33 percent of 4th graders and 31 percent of 8th graders performed at or above the Proficient level.
And the news just keeps getting worse. Even though the evidence was clear that school closures during the pandemic were disastrous for our children at the time, we now know that instead of catching up, our kids are continuing to fall farther behind. In a depressing report released in July 2023, NWEA – a research and assessment methodology organization – called this phenomenon “education’s long Covid-19.” The report revealed that the average student would need “the equivalent of 4.1 additional months of schooling to catch up in reading and 4.5 months in math” and that “marginalized students remain the furthest from recovery.”
This last point should come as no surprise since minority children are always hit the hardest. In the case of the Covid-19 disruption, any progress made in closing the educational gap over the past two decades was essentially wiped out. An economist at Stanford, Eric Hanushek, put it this way: “This cohort of students is going to be punished throughout their lifetime.”
On January 29, 2025, the latest Nation’s Report Card assessing students in 4th and 8th grade math and reading was released – and the nightmare continues. Although public schools had pretty much spent all the $190 billion in federal emergency funding they received during Covid-19, there was no improvement in 8th grade math (although 4th graders got a two-point rebound after dropping five points between 2019 and 2022) and reading scores took a beating across the board. The number of 8th graders reading below the base line is now the largest in the assessment’s history and the number of 4th graders reading below the base line is the highest it’s been in 20 years.
Fifteen years pass.
Meet James, a black man who lives in Austin, Texas. One of James’ earliest memories is hysterically crying while trying to revive his father, who collapsed from kidney disease. His dad died two days later.
His mother was devastated by the loss but was pregnant and had to support her family. James knew his mom had become a prostitute, and men would come and go all day and night. A couple of them had been nice to him, but those didn’t seem to last very long. The others would beat him, mock him, have sex with his mother in front of him, burn him with cigarettes and force him to try marijuana at the age of seven.
Once in a while, his mom would ask him to deliver little packages around their decrepit apartment complex, instructing him to bring back the money he was given in return. His best buddy lived next door and they would leave really early on summer mornings and roam around the neighborhood until well after dark. After wheezing most of his life, the school nurse determined James had acute asthma, but he never got the proper medication to ease it. When he was sixteen, his mom was diagnosed with a deadly heart condition, so James dropped out of high school to work full time to support her.
James’ life has been difficult to say the least, but things are turning around! He recently got his GED, received a small pay raise at work, and married the love of his life, the very beautiful Kimberly. James and Kimberly just had their first child, a perfect baby boy, and they are ready to buy their first home. Everything is looking up for James!
Let’s take this journey with James and Kimberly. The first stop is house hunting….
