A portrait of Mississippi: the same song

Urbanmiss

So after reading the executive report summary on the state, i'm left with three impressions: 1) Mississippi is a poor state that maintains a grotesque gap between its black and white citizens.  Grass is green, Lebron James is the best  player in basketball, circles are infinite.

2)  This is travesty! this is a human rights crisis! We should all by filled with righteous indignation! 

3)  This is bad situation.  and, in the foreseeable future, it is not going to get better.  There are a series of people on the ground doing good work across the state making serious efforts to improve the situation.  But, I can't see the report summary's solutions in income, health and education being implemented without a dramatic shift in the political political philosophy of those in office.  The problems call for more comprehensive spending measures and greater protection for the most economically and socially vulnerable.  Instead, we have state senators who claim that state funded pre-k would equal baby-sitting and a governor who is rejecting federal money for unemployment relief for political grandstanding purposes.

One things that stood out on the maps:  The Madison-Hinds-Rankin area ranked as the number one for income, education, and a series of other indicators.  That makes sense, there is an business nucleus and large upper class/upper-middle class here.   At the same time, Rankin and Madison are white flight suburbs that are neatly divided to avoid the problems that plague the rest of mississippi.  Even Hinds is a tale of two counties, with the Southern and Western parts of Jackson having the problems that plague the Delta (only with more violence) while the Northern and Eastern parts of the country resemble Madison and Rankin.