Understanding Systemic Racism: A Deep-Rooted Issue with Tangible Consequences
Systemic racism, also called structural or institutional racism, refers to policies, practices, and social structures that create and perpetuate racial disparities across various aspects of life, including education, healthcare, employment, housing, and the criminal justice system. Unlike individual racism, which involves personal prejudice, systemic racism operates at a broader level, shaping opportunities and outcomes for entire racial groups.
This blog will explore the origins of systemic racism, how it manifests today, and why addressing it requires more than individual efforts—it demands structural change.
A Historical Foundation of Inequality
Systemic racism in the United States has deep historical roots, beginning with slavery and continuing through Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws, redlining, and mass incarceration. These structures and policies were deliberately designed to exclude Black Americans and other marginalized groups from economic, political, and social opportunities.
Slavery and Its Legacy: The foundation of systemic racism in America was laid during the era of slavery, where Black people were legally considered property. Even after abolition, Black Americans faced systemic exclusion from land ownership, education, and political participation through Black Codes and Jim Crow laws (Alexander, 2012).
Redlining and Housing Discrimination: In the 20th century, government-backed policies like redlining systematically denied Black families access to home loans and quality housing, pushing them into segregated, underfunded communities. This has had lasting effects on generational wealth (Rothstein, 2017).
The War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration: The policies of the 1970s and 1980s disproportionately targeted Black and Latino communities, leading to a dramatic increase in incarceration rates and contributing to the racial wealth and opportunity gap (Michelle Alexander, 2012).
How Systemic Racism Manifests Today
While explicit racial discrimination is illegal, systemic racism persists through entrenched policies and practices that disproportionately impact marginalized communities.
The Criminal Justice System
Black Americans are disproportionately stopped, searched, arrested, and incarcerated compared to their white counterparts. A Black person is five times more likely to be imprisoned than a white person (The Sentencing Project, 2021). Disparities in sentencing, police brutality, and voter disenfranchisement due to felony convictions are all indicators of systemic racism in the justice system.
Education and School Funding
Public schools in the U.S. are largely funded through local property taxes, leading to significant disparities between predominantly white and predominantly Black or Latino schools. On average, predominantly white school districts receive $23 billion more in funding than nonwhite districts, despite serving the same number of students (EdBuild, 2019).
Additionally, Black students are disproportionately suspended and expelled, often for minor infractions, leading to what’s called the “school-to-prison pipeline” (Losen & Martinez, 2013).
Employment and Economic Disparities
Black workers earn only 75 cents for every dollar earned by white workers (Economic Policy Institute, 2020). Discriminatory hiring practices, unequal pay, and barriers to career advancement contribute to these disparities. Moreover, Black Americans were hit hardest during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the economic vulnerabilities created by systemic inequalities.
Healthcare and Medical Racism
Black Americans experience higher mortality rates, worse health outcomes, and lower access to quality healthcare. A Black woman is three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than a white woman (CDC, 2022). Systemic factors, such as implicit bias among healthcare providers and underfunded hospitals in predominantly Black communities, contribute to these disparities.
Why Individual Efforts Are Not Enough
While personal biases play a role, systemic racism is embedded in institutions, requiring policy reform and structural change to dismantle. Some key solutions include:
Criminal Justice Reform: Ending cash bail, reducing sentencing disparities, and investing in community-based alternatives to policing (ACLU, 2023).
Education Equity: Revising school funding models to ensure equal resources across racial and economic lines (EdBuild, 2019).
Economic Justice: Raising the federal minimum wage, strengthening workplace protections, and addressing discriminatory hiring practices (EPI, 2020).
Healthcare Equity: Expanding access to affordable healthcare and addressing implicit bias in medical training (CDC, 2022).
Conclusion
Systemic racism is not just about individual acts of discrimination but about deeply ingrained structures that limit opportunities for marginalized communities. Addressing these issues requires not only awareness but also sustained advocacy, policy changes, and collective action.
By understanding how systemic racism operates, we can work toward dismantling the barriers that perpetuate racial injustice and build a more equitable society.
Sources
Alexander, M. (2012). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
Rothstein, R. (2017). The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America.
The Sentencing Project. (2021). Report on Racial Disparities in Sentencing.
EdBuild. (2019). $23 Billion: The Funding Gap Between White and Nonwhite School Districts.
Losen, D. J., & Martinez, P. (2013). Out of School & Off Track: The Overuse of Suspensions in American Middle and High Schools.
Economic Policy Institute. (2020). State of Working America Wages Report.
CDC. (2022). Racial Disparities in Maternal Mortality Report.
ACLU. (2023). Criminal Justice Reform Policy Recommendations.