I am gathering data for social equity/racial justice research. The ACS provides block group level data for race/ethnicity for persons, and also on poverty for persons. But it does not give “persons in poverty by race.” This information would be very valuable, but I was told by the Census staff that it cannot be distributed for privacy reasons. It is frustrating that we cannot locate “neighborhoods” (aka block groups) with low-income people of color. If we cannot locate them, that hampers our ability to target services to assist them. It seems like a Catch 22.
I was able to find municipal level data by HOUSHOLD which has income levels by race. That was somewhat helpful. But it seems like the existing census bureau practices are limiting our ability to do rigorous research on social justice, which is a very pressing issue.
Do any of you have any thoughts on this? Am I missing something? Is there some other means by which I can get neighborhood level data on poverty by race?
Would census tract level data suffice? Tracts are composed of from 1 to 5 blockgroups. Table B17001 is available for race and ethnic groups at the tract level.