In time for Juneteenth, the Ulster County Comptroller’s Office last week released a report on racial inequity in the county. As noted by Comptroller March Gallagher, this is the first report of its kind ever compiled by Ulster County. While many of its findings are both expected and disturbing, some are quite startling.

In the report, aptly titled “Ulster County Racial Equity Report,” Gallagher wrote, “The inspiration for this report came from work completed by the Nassau County Comptroller’s Office that undertook a similar effort in 2018. We worked with a team of trusted advisors to go beyond the work done in Nassau by identifying what indicators would be most relevant and insightful for the analysis of racial equity in Ulster County.”

Sadly, as she noted, “Both locally and nationally, inequities plague our communities. There are many policies and programs that have resulted in exacerbating our inequities, such as redlining [the practice of banks refusing to lend to persons of color seeking to live in white majority neighborhoods]. To illustrate this, wherever possible, we obtained local county data; however, we found that there were important indicators that are only available at the state or national level.”

Ulster County was named for the northernmost of Ireland’s traditional provinces in 1683 by James, Duke of York, who also renamed New Amsterdam as New York after the English took control from the Dutch colonizers. Gallagher noted, “In New York, it’s easy to forget our difficult past. You only need to walk through the Stockade District or visit the Pine Street African Burial Ground to see that we live on lands that were taken from Native Americans, and in communities built with the labor of enslaved Africans.”

Gallagher concluded her introduction to the report saying, “Ulster County lost more troops in the Civil War than any war since. Let us not forget any part of our history, no matter how difficult to reconcile. We can only address this huge injustice by examining, confronting, and dismantling these systemic causes of institutional racism. This report is offered with these goals in mind.”

This report on Ulster County is a useful reminder of historical realities. For example, today’s Ulster County is 0.5 percent Native American. The Lenni Lenape are no longer here, though their language remains in the names given to many parts of the county — the Shawangunk Ridge, Esopus, Mohonk, Ashokan and more. Today there are more Lenape in Ontario, Canada, than there are here in their homeland.

And from the very beginning of European colonization, there was slavery. The Dutch West India Company brought enslaved Africans to Ulster County in the 17th century. The Comptroller’s report noted that in the 1790 census there were 2,807 enslaved people recorded. Full emancipation was completed in New York by 1827.

Today the ethnic makeup of the county is pretty clear. It is overwhelmingly white: 77.9 percent, according to Census data. The county's minority population breaks down as follows: 11.6 percent Hispanic, 6.1 percent Black, 2.1 percent Asian, 8.8 percent “two or more races,” and 4.5 percent “some other race alone.”

Racial Disparities

The consequences of actual “structural racism” continue to be seen. When reviewing the health options for COVID-19, disparate health outcomes were recorded between Black/Brown and white communities. In New York City, for example, Black people were hospitalized at twice the rate of white people for COVID during the Omicron wave, according to the report.

“Structural racism has been found to be a major factor dictating where people live and work, and their access to resources. People of color may find it difficult to access quality health care or to afford treatment,” the report noted.

The report added that Black people account for 17 percent of "frontline" workers, whereas their total representation in the workforce is just 11.9 percent. And this has contributed to higher rates of COVID-19 exposure at work.

From birth to death there are significant differences recorded. “Black maternal morbidity rates,” for example, are 2.3 times those of white women. Teen pregnancies for those under 18 are 11.4 per thousand among Blacks, and 3.2 among whites. One result of that is that 23.2 percent of Ulster County-based Black families fall below the poverty line, compared to just 5.3 percent of whites.

Education records the same kind of disparities. “Black and Hispanic students in Ulster County have lower graduation rates from high school, with only 87 percent of Black students and 81 percent of Hispanic students graduating high school, compared to 90 percent of whites.”

And unfortunately, the other side of that coin is this: “Ulster County Black youth have disparate engagement with the criminal justice system. Using the latest data available to the Comptroller’s Office, Black youth make up only 9 percent of all youth in Ulster, yet they make up 33 percent of all juvenile offenders, 18 percent of all those on probation, 24 percent of those involved in family court proceedings and 26 percent of all probation intake.”

Pretty stark differences show up in employment statistics, too. For example, “Hispanics accounted for 18 percent of total employment but were substantially overrepresented in several detailed occupational categories, including painters, construction and maintenance (56 percent); miscellaneous agricultural workers (54 percent); and maids and housekeeping cleaners (49 percent).”

Then again, the report noted, “Asians accounted for 7 percent of all employed workers but made up a much larger share of workers in several occupational categories, including miscellaneous personal appearance workers (59 percent); software developers, applications and system software (38 percent); and physicians and surgeons (18 percent).” Whites, by the way, made up 97 percent of “farmers, ranchers and other agricultural managers.” They were also 91 percent of construction managers and 89 percent of carpenters.

Black and Hispanic people in Ulster County, both men and women, earned less than whites, and, whites earned considerably less than Asians of both genders.

And to go with all this, housing patterns exhibit more of the same. As reported in Kingston Wire recently, a study by SUNY New Paltz's Benjamin Center the nationwide property assessment burden is greater on moderately priced homes than on higher value ones, “because lower and moderate homes are appraised closer to sale price than higher-value homes, thus sheltering that extra value from taxation.”

Ultimately, the “severely cost-burdened” in housing (households that spend 50 percent or more of their income on housing) are disproportionately Black. A heavy 63 percent of Blacks fell in that category, compared to 52 percent of Hispanics and 36 percent of whites.

All of these aspects of social and economic life show up dramatically when it comes to building wealth generation by generation. “This lack of economic opportunities, inability to build home equity, lower job wages, less access to services and higher costs in the marketplace mean that Black and Brown families have less opportunity to build wealth," the report stated. "This is well documented by national data. Family wealth in Ulster County is tied to our history including slavery.”

Low credit scores have long-reaching social impacts. Everything from credit card denials to mental health issues can result. The report said that Black Americans report having the lowest overall credit scores of all groups surveyed. More than half (54 percent) of Black Americans report having poor or fair credit (a credit score below 640), or no credit at all, compared with 41 percent of Hispanic Americans, 37 percent of white Americans and 18 percent of Asian Americans.

The report added that white families were twice as likely to receive inheritances as Black families. Further, the median wealth for white families was $188,200 compared to just $24,100 for Black families and $36,100 for Hispanic families.

Thus, stated the report, the legacy of our history continues to play out: "The lingering effects of historic oppression, racism, redlining and racial segregation still exist today.”

Of course, the demographics continue to change. The report also noted the increase of the Hispanic sector in Ulster County from 6 to 12 percent in the past 20 years.

The report concluded with a call to keep working on the problem. “While Ulster County has taken action to level the playing field by affording additional opportunities and reformative actions, there is still significant work to accomplish in the coming years," it stated. "We hope this report helps illuminate areas of opportunity, helping Ulster County to narrow the racial economic gap, and further implement innovative, fair solutions to continue diversifying our economy.”

The full report can be found under the Audits & Reports tab on the Ulster County Comptroller’s website.