SYSTEMIC AND INSTITUTIONAL RACISM: EXPLAINED WITH THE FACTS

Systemic racism, also known as institutional racism, discusses the systematic structure of society where it’s distribution of opportunity, power, and resources disadvantages African-American’s and other minorities. This makes it difficult for them to participate equally in society compared to White counterparts. It’s been used plenty of times in history, from slavery, to segregation, to the settlement of English people in Native American territory and more. None of these events occur anymore, but they’ve left a lasting negative effect in our country. Today, systemic/ institutional racism can be seen in the employment population, health care, housing, the racial wealth gap, income, policing/criminal justice system, education, and careers. If you don’t believe me, lets see the statistics on them:

EMPLOYMENT POPULATION

You can tell that the unemployment rate for Black Americans is much higher compared to White people. ​

As you can see, the employment population for Hispanics and Black people are considerably lower than the ratio for White people. ​

HEALTH CARE

By the looks of this graph, Black people have a greater percentage of lacking health insurance coverage, almost twice the amount of White people’s (around 2018). ​

HOUSING

Because of the lower income that Black people make, their poverty rate beats that of White people by over twice the amount. Extra fact: Despite making up only 13% of the Americas society, Black people comprise nearly half of the homeless population. ​

With the large rates of poverty, low income, and problems getting mortgage approval, the amount of Black households that are homeowners is less than any other races. ​

RACIAL WEALTH GAP

Wow, historically and even in recent years we see Black Americans earn less than 70% of what the average White person makes. ​

INCOME

Similar to the wage gap, Black people have an overall lower income than White people. In 2018, it was about 42% lower! ​

POLICING/CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

1. Although only around 13% of America consists of Black people, they have the highest rate of being fatally shot by the police. ​

Compared to their share of the U.S population, Black people make up a huge portion of the American prison system. ​

From this graph we can learn how many times more likely Black males are to be imprisoned compared to their White counterparts of equal age. ​

CAREERS

Well it looks like there aren’t many Black CEO’s today & in the past. ​

Black and Hispanics/Latino's are definitely on the lower side of this spectrum.​

This graph shows us Black people are underrepresented in the Legislative Branch of the U.S government. ​

EDUCATION

You can see that the number of college degrees attained for both races increased, but there’s still a gap between the amount for Black and White people. ​

This 2013 study showed that advanced educational opportunities were given less to Black students.

Therefore, from these pieces of evidence I’m hoping you now understand how prominent systemic/ institutional racism is in our society. It’s a huge issue that needs to be addressed and fixed. It’s not fair that because of their race, Black people and other minorities are being put at a disadvantage all across America. Equality is crucial to a better country. We need to put a stop to this biased and unjust treatment stemming from systemic & institutional racism, now, or at least soon. Sources/ links to check out: https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/institutionalracism.pdf https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-institutional-racism-721594 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/15/systemic-racism-what-does-mean/5343549002/ * All charts come from this article from Business Insiders *