White Privilege?
Recently, in social media discussions arising from police executions of black Americans, friends of mine have expressed ideas that seem to reflect a belief that racism doesn’t exist. Briefly, what follows is an attempt to factually establish the existence of systemic racism in the United States.Since the events inspiring outrage lately were encounters with police, let’s start there.
Encounters with Police
Black drivers are more likely to be stopped by the police, and three times more likely to have their car searched. They are arrested for drug-related offenses at twice the rate despite the fact that whites use drugs at comparable rates.
Once arrested, blacks are more likely to be jailed awaiting trial, probably due to poverty. This disrupts their family and work life, may impede future employment, and makes it harder to prepare a defense.
Black defendants are more likely to be offered plea deals that include prison time.
Sentences for the same Crime
Black Americans are likely to serve longer sentences than white Americans for the same crime.
Rates of Incarceration
In 2008, the prison population under federal and state correctional jurisdiction was over 1,610,446 prisoners. Of these prisoners, 20% were Hispanic (compared to 16.3% of the U.S. population that is Hispanic), 34% were White (compared to 63.7% of the U.S. population that is White), and 38% were Black (compared to 12.6% of the U.S. population that is Black). Additionally, Black males were imprisoned at a rate 6.5 times higher than that of their White male counterparts. According to a 2012 study by the U.S. Census Bureau, "over half the inmates incarcerated in our nation's jails are either black or Hispanic.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_inequality_in_the_United_States
Voter Disenfranchisement
Most U.S. states restrict the voting rights of citizens convicted of crimes. Since black Americans are overrepresented in the criminal justice system, voter disenfranchisement has a disproportionate effect on the black population.
So, black Americans are more likely to be stopped, more likely to be searched, more likely to be jailed before trial, more likely to be given a prison sentence, more likely to be given a longer sentence, and more likely to lose the right to vote (and access to better employment) due to a criminal record.
Both a contributing cause and an effect of the above is poverty. However, it is time to pause for a moment to ask, “do you think these inequitable outcomes in our justice system are because of some inherent quality of blacks and hispanics? Like, do you think their race makes them more inclined to commit crimes?
If your answer is yes, you are a racist and you should just own it so that reasonable, decent people can leave you out of their lives.
Okay, back to contributing causes.
Poverty
According to the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality’s 2017 “State of the Union” report, “in data from 2015, one in four blacks and Native Americans, and one in five Hispanics, are poor. This contrasts with one in ten whites and Asians. Although the poverty rate for whites is low, whites make up the majority of the nation’s poor because there are more whites in the total population. In comparison, blacks and Hispanics, who comprise just 25 percent of all household heads, account for 44 percent of the nation’s poor.”
https://inequality.stanford.edu/publications/pathway/state-union-2017
2009 government data says the median wealth of white households is 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households.
Why? Because blacks and hispanics have a harder time finding and keeping jobs, accessing better jobs, and earning at equivalent rates.
Employment, Income, and Earnings
In April 2020 the unemployment rate for white Americans was 3.8%, for black Americans 6.8%. Last August the rate for white Americans was 3.1%, black Americans still 6.8%.
Some folks claim that the disparity is due to an education gap, that if black workers had better skills, they’d have better employment outcomes; however, black college graduates are more likely than white ones to be underemployed.
Looking at the bigger picture of underemployment (unemployed plus part-timers who’d like full-time plus discouraged who recently gave up looking) white Americans 7.1%, black Americans 12.2%.
The average hourly wage for white Americans was $28.66, for black Americans $21.05
Even with the same level of educational attainment, people of color -- especially black women-- typically are paid less than white and male workers.
Historically, education provides a route out of poverty. For blacks, that route is difficult and treacherous.
Education
It’s harder for people of color to gain an education. Measures of educational achievement show a significant and remaining gap between white students and students of color.
Lack of educational opportunity is one contributor to a lack intergenerational upward social mobility among blacks.
Social Mobility
there is a five times greater chance of downward mobility from the top quartile to the bottom quartile for African Americans than there is for White Americans; correspondingly, African Americans rise to the top quartile from the bottom quartile at half the rate of White Americans.
among families that owned homes, white households have started to rebound from the worst effects of the Great Recession while black households are still struggling to make up lost ground. The racial wealth gap is now on track to compound over time, a trend with urgent implications for the future of racial justice in America https://www.ssrc.org/publications/view/impact-of-the-us-housing-crisis-on-the-racial-wealth-gap-across-generations/
the multigenerational absence of wealth and asset attainment for African Americans makes it almost impossible for them to make significant contributions of wealth to the next generation. Data shows that financial inheritances could account for 10 to 20 percent of the difference between African American and White American household wealth.
Housing
Statistics show blacks own less valuable houses.
On average, the economic value of Black-owned units is 35% less than similar White-owned units. African American and Hispanic mortgage holders are 1.5 to 2.5 times more likely to pay 9% or more on interest. Krivo and Kaufman calculate that the African-American/White gap in mortgage interest rates is 0.39%, which translates to a difference of $5,749 on the median home loan payment of a 30-year mortgage of a $53,882 home.
FHA and VA loans make up one-third or more of primary loans for African Americans and Hispanics, while only 18% for White Americans and 16% for Asians. These loans require lower down payments and cost more than conventional mortgages, which contributes to a slower accumulation of equity.
Only 30% of African Americans in comparison to 60% of White Americas had previously owned a home. African-Americans, Asians, and Hispanics gain lower home equity returns in comparison to White Americans with increases in income and education.
So, blacks are less likely to own a house, more likely to own a lousy house, more likely to pay too much, and more likely to lack equity.
The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted disparities in health and health care.
Health
Hypertension and diabetes are two to three times more common among blacks than whites, which partly explains the greater burden of cardiovascular disease among blacks. Deaths from heart disease are almost twice as common for black men compared with white men and almost three times higher for black women than for white women. Every seven minutes a black person dies prematurely in the United States; this translates to more than 200 black people dying daily who would not have died if the health of blacks and whites were equalized. At age 25, there is a five-year life expectancy gap between blacks and whites. More than half of this racial disparity in longevity is due to the higher prevalence among blacks of risk factors related to cardiovascular disease.
https://inequality.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/Pathways_SOTU_2017_health.pdf
Some might say that those racial disparities in health are genetic, but they are not. They are largely due to childhood family and neighborhood conditions -- largely due to the inequities detailed above.
People of color also experience inequities in health care. Prior to the Affordable Care Act a higher percentage of blacks and hispanics were uninsured compared to the national average. Even since the ACA, the linking of insurance to employment means people of color are more likely to experience gaps in coverage and changes in their care providers, because of the employment conditions detailed above.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5370590/
Once again it is time for me to ask if you think the statistical differences detailed above are somehow internally connected to the race of the people suffering from them. That is, do you believe people of color are sick, stupid, lazy, irresponsible, unreliable, dishonest?
If you think that, stop pretending otherwise, be an honest bigot, so humanity can recognize you as an enemy.
What I see in the above information is an interlocking system of unequal treatment for people of color in the US. It doesn’t require overt racism from individuals, because it is systemic. All it requires is for people of good will to do nothing to change it.
Many of the works I cited above have sections recommending policy changes. I simply ask those my argument is targeted at to not act like the problem doesn’t exist, not spread victim-blaming information, not interfere with solutions. “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work…. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us.”
It seems to me that a fair amount of the inequities enumerated above stem from long-term poverty and financial insecurity. National, state, and local policies that help the poor, regardless of race, would be big step in the right direction.
For the rest, I think educational, health, law enforcement, justice, and other institutions need to enact more rigorous training and consciousness-raising programs to zealously guard the rights of all.
Racism is a blot on our cultural soul, and a barrier to our achievement of a civilized society. We need renewed dedication to its end.
“with malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”
Need more convincing?
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