Systematic racism still exists in America. That is a fact.
Disgusting acts of hate are happening every day in America. Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT, was killed by police on March 13th, 2020. I am sure by now everyone has heard of the George Floyd killing on May 25th, 2020. Then, most recently on August 23rd, 2020, Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by police. He is now paralyzed.
People will sit and make up their stories about why this is justified. “Oh, he should have just listened to the police.” To those people I say what the hell is wrong with you? You see all these Americans not listening when they are told to wear a mask, should they be shot too? Didn’t think so.
In America, systematic racism is a very real thing. People of color — Black Americans, Latinos, Asians, and other minorities — face systematic racism every single day. It is important to recognize that when talking about systematic racism that it doesn’t mean one event of racism.
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What is systematic racism?
The NAACP President Derrick Johnson defines systematic racism as “systems and structures that have procedures or processes that disadvantage African Americans.” America’s system does disadvantage Black Americans and other minorities.
Glenn Harris, who is the president of Race Forward, says that systematic racism “creates disparities in many success indicators.” What this means is that there is an imbalance between races in wealth, employment, health care, education, the criminal justice system, etc.
Systematic racism can prevent or make it very hard for people of color to succeed in society. There are many different factors in regards to systematic racism, but the big ones are housing insecurity, wealth gap, employment, and education. These are all connected.
Black Americans actually make up nearly half of the homeless population, even though they are only roughly 13% of the population. That is absurd. A big reason behind this is the legacy of redlining in America. Essentially, redlining is how banks and real estate companies determine which neighborhoods are the riskiest to invest in. It was more common in the 20th century, but I assure you it is still common today.
The racist practices that America has participated in (and still does participate in) has definitely stopped a great majority of people of color from amassing the same sort of wealth that white families were able to. Yes, you could say redlining was banned in 1968, but that doesn’t mean it still isn’t practiced. It also doesn’t mean that the damage wasn’t already done.
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How do we address systematic racism?
Before we can put an end to systematic racism, we need to actually acknowledge as a nation that it exists. I see people all the time going around and arguing that it doesn’t. The crazy thing is, I mainly see white people saying it doesn’t exist. It’s easy to say something doesn’t exist when you don’t experience it every day. It is absurd to believe a person who has never experienced systematic racism can claim it doesn’t exist.
Quite frankly, people of color, especially Black Americans, should be compensated for the systematic racism, slavery, and other hate over the years. The White race did this in America, so shouldn’t we be responsible for fixing it? I’d say so. Why should anyone expect the victims of hate to have to fix it on their own. Do you expect other victims of trauma to do that?
Like Derrick Johnson said, “Racism is not a partisan issue, and we need to stop making it a partisan issue.” Racism is a moral issue.
We must demand change like the people out in the streets protesting against racism are. It’s also very important to stop electing political leaders and policy makers that don’t believe in change and that are in support of systematically racist policies.
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#1 Criminal justice reform
There is an overwhelming amount of evidence of the systematic racism that exists within the American criminal justice system. If you don’t believe me, look for yourself. You will find it everywhere.
In fact, I encourage you to check out these documentaries and films based on true stories:
- When They See Us (A limited series on the true story of the Central Park Five)
- 13th (A documentary that follows the mass incarceration of African-Americans)
- Fruitvale Station (Based on the events that lead up to Oscar Grant’s death — 22 year old that was killed by a police officer)
- Time: The Kalief Browder Story (Tells Kalief Browder’s Story on how he refused to plead guilty to something he didn’t do and spent years in jail awaiting trial)
- Just Mercy (A film that follows Bryan Stevenson, a civil-rights lawyer who fights against for those who are wrongly convicted based on their race)
Check out these and keep going if you want. There are so many other options to educate yourself on the existence of systematic racism and how it affects people of color.
It is much more common for a person of color to be pulled over by a cop. It is also much more common for a person of color to be arrested, especially in regards to something like drug possession. When we all know that white people sell and do drugs too (last time I checked all races are guilty of that), but cops are far more lenient with white people, especially with marijuana. In Massachusetts, the incarceration rates for Black Americans are 8 times higher than White people.
Are you really going to try and tell me that the system is treating people fairly based on the color of their skin?
The other day I saw a video of a White man with an axe and the cops didn’t shoot him. Let a Black man have an axe and approach a cop. The question wouldn’t be if the cops are going to shoot him, it would be how many times are they going to shoot him. It’s disgusting and unacceptable.
A couple things we can do right now is provide more employment for anyone who was incarcerated and make changes to how we train our police officers. Police brutality is far too common in America. Honestly, we need to get out any cops or policy makers that have any history of being prejudice at all.
Other things we can do: Less militarized training, less money for military weapons, more mental health training, training on emotional intelligence, more laws on hate crimes, laws on hate speech, more accountability for cops who act in a racist way, etc. Teach these cops some damn empathy for crying out loud. I’d make them watch every documentary I listed up there and let them know they are a part of why things are like this. Even if you are a “good cop,” if you watch discrimination happen, you are just as guilty.
Many companies, such as Walmart and IBM, have actually made a commitment to hire more previously incarcerated people.
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#2 Education reform
Research definitely shows that the schools that have more money invested into them produce students that go onto earn more later in life. There is a problem in the way States fund schools.
Schools in poorer areas have more minority students. These schools receive around $1,000 less per student than schools in areas with less poverty.
It is also important to note that many students of color benefit from having more access to teachers of color as well.
“Exposure to same-race teachers is associated with reduced disciplinary sanctions, a lower likelihood of dropping out of high school, and a higher likelihood of matriculating to college.” — Trevon Logan
It is important for us to include more people of color in our education workforce.
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#3 More startup funds for entrepreneurs of color
It can be a huge risk to start a company. It can also be a huge reward.
It’s even more of a challenge for those who don’t come from money. You can’t really argue systematic racism doesn’t exist if you look at the poverty rate for Black Americans is 27.4%. For Whites, the poverty rate is only 9.9%.
If we create more funds that are dedicated specifically to helping people of color start small businesses, we can help that poverty rate.
“When you make a strategic decision to not invest adequately in all groups in your society, you are forgoing productivity and you are forgoing economic growth,” — Trevon Logan
#4 Skill programs for communities of color
This one is just common sense. If you want to help your lower-income and minority communities to escape poverty, provide upskilling programs to those communities.
Most of the time, people who make less money have fewer skills they can use in employment. This is because they don’t have the network or the connections. They have also probably faced discrimination in their job application process.
We can’t cure discrimination immediately through this, but by providing more opportunity for people of color to increase their skills (especially in low-income communities) it will provide much more opportunity to those communities. Not to mention, it will make it much more obvious when employers are participating in discrimination. The more we are aware of the discrimination taking place, the more we can take proper action against it. It shouldn’t be legal or accepted in any way, period.
#5 Get rid of the barriers for people of color in politics
For years, Republicans have traditionally relied on the strategy of excluding Black Americans and other people of color from politics and voting.
Voter suppression is something that disproportionately affect Black communities.
This is a big part of why there is such a small Black representation in the government. To date, there has only been 10 Black lawmakers elected into the U.S. Senate.
We need more voice in our government for people of color. That’s a fact. And only those that want to keep systematic racism in place would be against that.
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It blows my mind that even after all the progress we have made over the years as far as Black and minority rights go… that we are still having discussions like this today. Systematic racism is a moral issue. It needs to be stopped. People need to be held accountable for participating in hate. It’s not okay and the system is clearly broken. We are all people. Act that way.
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This post was previously published on Equality Includes You.
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