As the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday nears, a new study takes a look at race in the 50 states.

It comes from the indefatigable folks at WalletHub, who are in the habit of leaving no data nugget unpublicized.

Hawaii is ranked No. 1 for racial integration, says the study, based on “employment and wealth” and “education and civic engagement.”

New Mexico, Texas, Maryland and California follow. Minnesota came in last, with the District of Columbia, Maine and Wisconsin near the bottom as well.

The study is timely in other ways, according to WalletHub:

“Prominent incidents of police brutality against blacks during the past several years have threatened to reverse decades of social progress. In December 2014, the percentage of Americans identifying “race relations” as the nation’s most important problem, 13 percent, was the highest recorded since May 1992, according to Gallup.”

But WalletHub also crunches the data when it comes to states making racial progress. In that regard, Hawaii ranks No. 25, Georgia is first and Maine is last.

Our ranking may be explained in part by this caveat from WalletHub, as our population is comprised heavily of Asian and Pacific Islanders:

“In this report, we examine the differences between only blacks and whites in light of the high-profile police-brutality incidents that have sparked national controversy in recent years and the Civil Rights Movement — in which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., played a prominent role — that involved mainly black and white groups.”

 

What it means to support Civil Beat.

Supporting Civil Beat means you’re investing in a newsroom that can devote months to investigate corruption. It means we can cover vulnerable, overlooked communities because those stories matter. And, it means we serve you. And only you.

Donate today and help sustain the kind of journalism Hawaiʻi cannot afford to lose.

About the Author