Writing in the New York Times, op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof recently pushed back against the notion many American whites have that racism isn’t really the vexing national crisis that it used to be. To this end Kristof lists several uncomfortable statistics illustrating the stark inequality between the races in areas like income, educational attainment, incarceration rates, life expectancy, and so forth, including the following headline grabbing bullet point:
The net worth of the average black household in the United States is $6,314, compared with $110,500 for the average white household, according to 2011 census data. The gap has worsened in the last decade, and the United States now has a greater wealth gap by race than South Africa did during apartheid.
These are all indisputable facts. But you don’t need a bunch of statistics to intuit the reality about racial inequity in America. Just look at the composition and layout of our communities: 150 years since the end of slavery, and a half century after Congress passed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, socioeconomic lines and color lines are still largely one and the same in what remains a profoundly racially segregated nation.
Why? Well, if you think about it logically, there can really be only two explanations. Either African Americans (and other non-white communities) are being held back by institutional racism… or nonwhites are, on average, racially inferior.
Feel free to argue the latter explanation if you like, although there is no science to support it. And even if you insist that there is some sort of cultural, rather than genetic inferiority that is holding back black Americans, that still doesn’t let you off the white supremacist hook.
So if we accept the premise that we are all more or less born equal (and what could be more American than that?), how else can we explain the stark disparity in life outcomes that stubbornly sticks to racial lines? Institutional racism is the only logical explanation.
If we define “institutional racism” as any kind of system of inequality based on race, then that is what we have here in America. The outcome is the proof.
Racism is always the reason.
“If we define “institutional racism” is any kind of system of inequality based on race, then that is what we have here in America.”
Sounds like affirmative action
I see institutional racism everywhere.
Yesterday, a judge ordered two black siblings released from a North Carolina prison after serving over 30 years for the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. There was no physical evidence against them. They were convicted on nothing more than confessions beaten out of them by police when they were 15 and 19 years old. Now, DNA samples from evidence the police had in their possession all along has linked another man to the crime. In other words, this crime could have been properly solved decades ago. But it was easier to beat up a couple of kids, and okay to do it because they were black.
Ferguson, Missouri, is one of dozens of tiny municipal entities in St. Louis County, which was balkanized in this fashion decades ago to make Jim Crow a permanent institution. Ferguson, which is two-thirds black, has never had a black mayor; has only 1 black member on its 5-person city council; and 50 of its 53-man police force are white.
In New York City, police have come under fire for a “stop and frisk” policy that targets minorities, especially blacks, for random police stops based on skin color; and Macy’s and other prominent retailers have come under fire for routinely frisking customers based on skin color.
In Seattle, a private security guard at Westlake Mall ignored a white troublemaker and pepper-sprayed, physically assaulted, handcuffed, and detained an innocent passerby over the protests of numerous witnesses. When a SPD cop arrived he told these witnesses to let the security guard “do his job” without making any inquiry into what had happened or whether the passerby had done anything. The problem? The passerby was black.
Does anyone really believe that police aren’t quicker on the trigger about shooting unarmed citizens if they’re non-white?
Does anyone really believe that police aren’t much more likely to harass citizens for petty infractions or no reason at all if they’re non-white?
@1 Racists don’t turn their prejudices on and off like a light bulb. If someone is a racist, then you’re correct, racism is always a reason for what they think and do.
@2 We have a lot of affirmative action for whites in this country. They get preferences in hiring, who gets waited on first by store clerks, and even who gets warnings from police instead of tickets. Minorities envy all the special privileges whites have.
Your “nonwhites are, on average, racially inferior” glosses over how Asians have gone from stereotyped/locked up on camps to being equal if not superior to whites. Magical yellow powers?
I wasn’t hearing much from the white community about second amendment rights in the heyday of the Black Panthers. Cliven Bundy and his wacko cohorts can point weapons at police and nothing happens. Michael Brown, on the other hand, was, if Ben Stein is to be believed, armed and dangerous just because he was big and black.
Of course, you can’t really discuss institutional racism without including the Republican Party, if you consider political parties to be “institutions.”
These so-called “cultural differences” are a byproduct of institutionalized racism. Pure and simple.
“The net worth of the average black household in the United States is $6,314, compared with $110,500 for the average white household, according to 2011 census data.”
There’s an issue with these statistics. It takes only a few white zillionaires to kick up the average white income to a high level. I’d rather see the median incomes of each group; those figures would be more useful and paint a more realistic picture.
re 9 — Yeah, but, the redneck and peckerwood communities of the south and Oklahoma would probably balance that curve.
@9 According to Pew, median net wealth for black families in 2011 (2012 adjusted dollars) was $6,446 compared to $91,405 for white families. So the point holds.
@ 10
Yeah, but the peckerwoods in Oklahoma can still consider themselves superior beings because they don’t cotton to no reedin’ and ritin’. They do jest fine without all that figurin and letters an’ commie book-lernin’.
/Damn Straight.
@7 I wonder if you will still hold that opinion after reading “The First Civil Right, How Liberals Built Prison America.” I can still remember Bill Clinton in LA after the Rodney King riots stating that “these people just do not have the same values as we do.” Guess who “these people” are and who the “we” is.
Of course, you can’t really discuss institutional racism without including the Democratic Party, if you consider political parties to be “institutions.”
So, the racism is bi-partisan. It’s something that we can all agree upon. I think that a way to eliminate racial bias against black citizens would be to make a huge educational effort to teach higher mathematics to black children. They could then be incorporated into society under the Asian banner of math excellence.
Without that, they don’t have a Chinaman’s chance.
@13 From a book review on Amazon.com:
“Her argument in the book is one that we seem to have to keep on learning: that well-intentioned liberals are a part of the problem. This book is a warning that our current focus on improving criminal justice administration through liberal reform is misguided and only bound to make criminal justice seemingly legitimate but still racially deadly.”
This may be so; but even if it is, how would that exonerate the GOP of the rampant racism in their party?
@14 That was true until half a century ago, but all the racists are Republicans now. Democrats don’t tolerate that and kick them out of their party.
In fact, back in the ’60s, Richard Nixon — one of the most ethically deficient men ever to occupy the Oval Office — made a deliberate decision to recruit southern racists into the GOP when Democrats’ support of civil rights laws drove them out of the Democratic Party. Nixon called it his “Southern Strategy,” and the GOP still embraces
this cynical election strategy to this day.
Sorry pal, your mutt doesn’t hunt.
Michael Brown’s Juvenile Records Released
Slain black teenager Michael Brown’s juvenile records were released today. They show he never got into serious trouble and wasn’t facing any juvenile charges at the time of his death. Police had previously said he had no adult criminal record.
(Source: AOL News)
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Looks like wingdings will have to find some other way to assassinate the character of a dead kid who can’t defend himself from their slandering and bullying.
@17… “Democrats don’t tolerate that and kick them out of their party.”
Hilarious.
Are only white people racist?
@19 This is an open forum. Any jackass can post any moronic ramblings here he wants to. Including you.
@20…Well according to genius lefty commentator Chris Matthews , yes, only white people can be racist.
@ 22
I’ve always considered Chris Mathews to be a fence-sitting, sarcastic right-winger.
Wasn’t it Dinesh D’Souza who proclaimed “The End of Racism”???
Oh never mind, he’s just a pretentious lawbreaker.
Since most blacks reside in the in the inner cities, we can thank DUMMOCRETIN city policies keeping blacks in their place on the reservation waiting for the DUMMOCRETIN masters to drops some crumbs to them. It’s plain and simple, white DUMMOCRETINS created sheeple since 1965 who continually look for their handout!
When one escapes black DUMMOCRETINS like harry poon (racist headless lucy) or the really moronic ruPRICK call them a UNCLE TOM for wanting better for their brothers and sisters; calling them to leave the reservation. Still waiting for ruPRICK to explain how the teahers unions want to assist inner city children with educational opportunities. ruPRICK IS MIA ON THAT ONE!
Hence the big disparity in net worth! And… it will continue to grow until black people wake up and realize DUMMOCRETINS have never offered them problem solutions in the past nor now them offer them problem solutions the present or will ever offer them any problems solutions to their every day issues in the future!
LindaJ@13,
It will never happen with NoBalls IDIOT Wabbit. He’s too stoooooooopid to think critically! The book isn’t approved reading of the Daily Kook or any other left wrong sites. DUMMOCRETINS will get really mad from the facts offered about DUMMOCRETIN policies incarcerating blacks over the last 75+ years. Puddy glad to see someone identifying DUMMOCRETINS for what they are besides Puddy all these years.
And that’s why OWS Racist deadtoad you are a moron! Would Chris be on prime time PMSNBC air time if Chris was a conservative Republican?
Surely you jest! Wait… you are stoooooooooopid enough to think that way! You think San Diego is conservative…. HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR!
Another bloviating quote from the ASShole of HA DUMMOCRETINS NoBalls IDIOT Wabbit.
Seems Al NoSoSharpton is widely tolerated. Nuff said sucka!
LindaJ@13, Notice NoBalls@16 went to a “review” of the book vs. spending $10 and downloading a Kindle version! That’s cuz NoBalls truly has NoBalls!
Puddy will repeat, NoBalls will not read it.. Not approved by left wrong DUMMOCRETIN sites.
What is racism? Isn’t it what libtard DUMMOCRETINS define it to be? If someone else tries to define it then you are an UNCLE TOM, a bigot or a racist. Dare not disagree with a black DUMMOCRETIN politician cuz then you are a sellout, a racist, a bigot, or an UNCLE TOM! Maybe you will the Quadfecta and are called all four! If you are a Black Republican Conservative politician, you are a sellout, a racist, a bigot and an UNCLE TOM. Aren’t those names given to Condolezza Rice, Colin Powell, Bill Cosby, Military Hero Allen West, Retired Congressman JC Watts, Dr Ben Carson and Senator Tim Scott? Again Puddy is spot on here. All Puddy has to do is Google their names and the HA DUMMOCRETIN freakazoids and their appear.
So Puddy again asks what is racism? It appears to be whatever DUMMOCRETINS call it. You have libtards deciding what “societal evolutions” they agreed with and those they didn’t. If you agreed with those they didn’t or you opposed those the do then you’re a racist.
So Puddy asks the HA DUMMOCRETIN libtard crowd this question. Why aren’t y’all racists for opposing charter schools or school vouchers so the poor inner city child can’t escape the suck ASS schools?
Now that’s institutional racism! Keeping them in institutions of worthless learning so they can only want to grow up emulating Calvin Broadus or Curtis Jackson because their worthless education provides them no other way out of the DUMMOCRETIN controlled institution! Well maybe the military… Then they get killed and one less black man walking the streets. Or they get killed in some drug war. One less black man walking the streets. Institutional Racism!
“Why aren’t y’all racists for opposing charter schools or school vouchers so the poor inner city child can’t escape the suck ASS schools?”
The pros of charter schools.
1. Options for families.
2. Foster competition.
3. Foster innovation.
The cons of charter schools.
1. Fiscal inefficiency. Schools are funded based on enrollment and charters mean loss of funding for traditional K-12 schools. As one school official said: If you want to improve the road system, does it make more sense to invest in the roads that already exist or build a parallel set of roads?
2. Unfair playing field. In theory, charter must open their doors to all. In reality, charters can target their audience — a rigorious curriculum, for instance, will discourage academic slackers; lack of transportation will filter out low-income families; lack of special education services can discourage special-education enrollment.
3. Less money for the classroom. Miron says EMOs typically obtain their profits by spending less in four areas: Teacher compensation, special ed, transportation and concentrating on K-8 schools versus high schools.
4. Less transparency. Because charter schools are run by private institutions, they are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
5. Less local control and accountability. Charter schools have boards appointed by the charter organizations versus one elected by the public.
6. Less diversity. Charter schools tend to create more racial and economic segregation, since they usually have a target market.
On the whole, the charter-school movement has fell short of the results that many education reformers and policymakers were predicting: It hasn’t boosted test scores or led to significant innovations or cost savings for taxpayers. Although there are some excellent charter schools, there isn’t evidence that charters, on the whole, can produce better results for less money.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kala.....gular.html
I’m for everyone getting a quality education who wants one. Charter schools look good on paper but have yet to be better when implemented. Charter schools seems to be used often as code for cherry picking the best from the public school system, and dumping the hard to teach or expensive kids into public schools.
Let’s face it. A quality education cost money and conservatives generally don’t want to pay for an education for someone else’s kid.
Is this an example of institutional racism?
—
The black unemployment rate is consistently twice that of whites, and the Latino unemployment rate is about half again as high as whites. Unemployed African-Americans are also likely to go without work for a longer amount of time. There’s no consensus as to why, but discrimination has a lot to do with it.
Meet Joe. He used to be José. No matter how many resumes José sent out, he never got a job interview. When José became Joe, potential employers started calling.
http://www.bilerico.com/2014/0.....e_cant.php
@31
Some charter schools are notorious for having astronomical expulsion rates.
All those kids who for whatever reason might tarnish the stats get kicked out.
The real issue with charter schools is using public money with no accountability for how it is spent, what is taught, or whether children learn. Who gets to deny public funding to a charter school, and under what criteria?
Ferguson Police Chief Lied About Release Of Robbery Tape
When Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson released a surveillance camera tape on August 15 that purportedly shows Michael Brown robbing a convenience store, he told reporters he was releasing it because of “many” FOIA requests.
Reporters have now reviewed the Ferguson Police Department’s FOIA records, and have found there were no requests made for that tape. Not a single one.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....73420.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: This looks an awful lot like a police chief trying to justify a police shooting which he doesn’t feel confident was justified.