Anthony Poore, President/CEO, NHCJE, speaks at the annual meeting of the New Hampshire Center for Justice and Equity at the Barn at Bull Meadow in Concord on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff
New Hampshire has the lowest poverty rate in New England, yet Black residents in the state are three times more likely to live below the poverty line than their white neighbors.
For every $1 a white Granite Stater makes, their Black counterpart is paid about $0.82, while a Hispanic coworker would make $0.77.
In schools, students of color have better educational outcomes when they see teachers from a similar racial background, yet that’s rare. New Hampshire’s educator workforce is 98% White, while its student body is 83% White.
Despite increasing diversity throughout the state, disparate outcomes are evident for people of color when it comes to housing, income, education and incarceration rates, according to the New Hampshire Center for Justice and Equity.
Over the last two years, the Center for Justice and Equity has worked to highlight New Hampshire’s growing and varied diversity – beyond the over-simplified narrative of the state as an aging, predominantly white, rural place – and is now looking to close the racial gap across policy sectors.
The center has hosted implicit bias trainings with over 200 members of law enforcement and published briefs that highlighted the state’s increasing demographic makeup and linguistics.
Six sectors guide the priorities – including civic engagement, economic development, education, government, health, and law enforcement/criminal justice.
To Anthony Poore, the president and CEO of the center, policy change begins with participation. But in 2022, participation in the midterm elections showed the largest racial disparity since 2006, according to a study from the Brennan Center for Justice.
Expanding access to voting in New Hampshire could come from automatic voter registration, providing mail-in ballots without reason and increasing access to voting materials for non-native English speakers.
To close the racial wealth gap, the center is focusing on access to affordable housing to increase homeownership rates across demographics. Raising the state’s minimum wage beyond the federal baseline of $7.25 an hour would also help reduce per-dollar disparities. And while access to childcare remains a barrier for the workforce across the state, the affordability component hits lower-income areas in particular, which are disproportionally communities of color.
“An inclusive economy is one where all people can thrive regardless of race or ethnicity,” said Poore.
Anthony Poore, President/CEO, NHCJE, speaks at the annual meeting of the New Hampshire Center for Justice and Equity at the Barn at Bull Meadow in Concord on Tuesday. GEOFF FORESTER / Monitor staff
In the education sector, the center’s policy goals focus on promoting, and defending, diversity in schools across the state. While one in 10 people in New Hampshire identify as a person of color, 98% of teachers are white, according to federal data.
Transportation can also be a barrier to employment for communities of color, who are twice as likely to commute on public transportation. Increasing access to public transportation, and reducing commuting costs, would expand job access across the state.
A recent issue brief from the center outlined New Hampshire’s incarceration rates disproportionally affect people of color, which is in line with national trends. But demographic data about encounters with law enforcement is sparse, meaning identifying the root of these problems, and potential solutions, is limited.
“Racial disparities in our criminal justice system is well documented here in the United States as well as here in New Hampshire,” he said. “Our priorities will be to improve racial data collection in our criminal justice system. You know, it’s not good.”
Bail reform and expunging marijuana charges are two other ways to address disproportional effects of the state’s criminal justice system.
Tuesday marked the second annual meeting for the center, where Poore announced its updated platform.
“Making progress on these policy issues requires work across our other programs such as convening stakeholders for difficult conversations,” said Poore. “Successful policy change requires collaboration and cooperation and we lead when we need to, and more importantly, offer support when that’s the best approach. You can’t be everything to everybody.”
These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
Current Issue - May 2024