This post is a response to Mayor William V. “Bill” Bell’s recent guest column, “First steps key in long journey to eliminate poverty.” Zero tolerance drug policies cannot alleviate poverty Dear Mayor Bell, Ray Gronberg e-mailed me last week asking me to respond to new language in the city’s anti-poverty initiative calling for a “zero tolerance” […]
Duke-UNC Initiative on Poverty and Inequality Summer Fellowship
Duke-UNC Initiative on Poverty and Inequality Summer Fellowship This is a joint effort between UNC and Duke University to focus on issues of poverty and inequality in Durham and Orange counties. The initiative emphasizes the importance of developing an historical understanding as well as working with local communities to find policy solutions to these persistent […]
TalkPoverty LIVE focuses on Durham's "Ban the Box" success
SCSJ Staff Attorney Daryl Atkinson discussed critical policy issues relating to poverty in America with fellow expert panelists on Thursday’s TalkPoverty LIVE! webcast. Joining him were: Jared Bernstein: Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and former Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Biden Jodie Levin-Epstein: Deputy Director of the Center for Law […]
These Eight Charts Show Why Racial Equality Is a Myth in America (repost)
These Eight Charts Show Why Racial Equality Is a Myth in America (via Moyers & Company) Ta-Nehisi Coates’ cover story at The Atlantic, “The Case for Reparations,” published last night — and the subject of this week’s Moyers & Company interview — shows how dramatically the legacy of slavery and centuries of legalized and institutionalized…
UNC journalism students explore race class and education in Durham, NC
There is no direct means by which a student becomes a dropout, unemployed or a criminal; there is no single decision, policy or process directly responsible for the transformation. But certain characteristics tend to tip the scales toward either future success or future failure. The intersection of poverty and race can be a statistically dangerous […]
Changes to unemployment insurance harm jobless workers and economy
Cuts to unemployment insurance in North Carolina have made it harder for jobless workers to support their families and make ends meet in an economy with simply too few jobs to go around, according to a report released this morning by the North Carolina Justice Center. The recent decline in unemployment has been largely due […]
Happy Outcome for Durham Homeless Does Not Absolve City Council and Police of Moral Responsibility for Panhandling Arrests
The Durham Police have endured considerable criticism in recent months for a series of high-profile shootings and revelations about the department’s controversial stop-and-search practices, which statistics show amount to a pattern and practice of racial profiling against black motorists. Now the department’s treatment of the city’s most vulnerable citizens—its homeless population—is also drawing fire, in […]