Black, Latino unemployment rates exceed whites'

The statement

The Latino unemployment rate is higher than the white rate and the black rate is higher than the Latino rate.

Marc Morial, Sunday in a roundtable discussion on NBC's Meet the Press

The ruling

David Gregory, the host of NBC's Meet the Press, asked his panelists to consider "Diversity and the Myth of White Privilege," a Wall Street Journal op-ed column in which Sen. James Webb, D-Va., argues against current federal affirmative action laws, saying they have strayed beyond their original purpose, "favor anyone who does not happen to be white'' and have "damaged racial harmony.''

Panelist Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, responded: "I think the question is, how do you target and tailor policies that are going to help all economically and socially disadvantaged people. And it's a fair debate to have, but it also needs to be positive with facts. Look at the Latino unemployment rate. It's higher than the white rate. The black rate is higher than the Latino rate. So to suggest that there are not disparities that affect the Latino community, that affect the Native American community, most in depth, the African-American community, we've got to have the discussion that Jim Webb wants to have."

We won't take sides on Webb's view of policies that provide race-based advantages, a topic that inspires passions on both sides but isn't a checkable fact. We can check the narrower question of whether Morial is right about unemployment rates.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates seasonally adjusted unemployment rates by race and ethnicity. We found that in June 2010, the white unemployment rate was 8.6 percent. The black unemployment rate was 15.4 percent, and the Hispanic/Latino rate was 12.4.

So Morial is correct that the Latino unemployment rate is higher than the white rate and that the black rate is higher than the Latino rate. We rate his claim True.

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