Equality in America has long been proved to be the ultimate uphill battle. From the Trans-Atlantic slave trade to Emmett Till’s lynching, people of color have been deemed inferior throughout American history. However, in the years since then, society has attempted drastic leaps forward—the United States Congress abolished slavery in its formal sense and safeguarded many rights during the Civil Rights Movement. Considering this, many may presume that legal equality for all has been achieved. Yet numerous events have disproved this so-called racial impartiality towards Black individuals, and despite what some individuals may believe, systemic racism is ingrained in many aspects of American society and must be confronted.
Admittedly, as state and federal governments have sought to separate themselves from former racist policies, many American individuals endorse the belief that racism has been eradicated. Interestingly though, through a survey, the U.S. News found that more people of color than White people agreed that systemic racism plagues the nation (see figure 1). Those who have never experienced racism firsthand are often apathetic to marginalized groups' sufferings and don’t buy into the argument that minorities’ pains are amplified. After all, when someone is not personally affected by an issue, he can easily ignore its existence altogether. American institutions have perpetuated this perspective and taught people to view discrimination as independent instances rather than the big-picture, systemic phenomenon it is; it remains unseen to those not directly affected (Gleig). Especially when racism was more blatant in the past with slavery and the Jim Crow laws, some even contend that such an issue is not as veritable as minorities describe it to be. This ignorant perspective, however, does not subtract from the reality of how racism remains ingrained into many American systems.
Indeed, racist assumptions have been present for decades, influencing discriminatory practices such as redlining. In the mid-1900s, many banks sidelined African American individuals from owning homes and stipulated that African Americans were likely to default on home loans. Such banks labeled city-wide maps, identifying the neighborhoods that were dominated by Black individuals. (Peiffer). Thus, despite meeting other essential criteria such as satisfactory credit scores, many African Americans could not move into more affluent neighborhoods and unlock the augmented opportunities associated with homeownership. For instance, as many Black children – confined in poor neighborhoods – attended impoverished schools, they lacked the quality of education their White counterparts received and therefore could not ascend the socioeconomic ladder. The effects of redlining continue to influence the lives of many African Americans today. Because many Black individuals live in poorer localities, their homes may be built from low-quality materials and therefore lack adequate airflow. Moreover, many of these neighborhoods are significantly warmer than predominantly White communities due to a dearth of greenery (Lufkin). Excessive heat can cause numerous healthcare issues, and the American for-profit healthcare industry often leads many people into thousands of dollars of medical debt. Many African Americans who could not even afford higher quality construction materials may suffer greatly due to crushing debt, unable to purchase even material goods that could improve their quality of life.
White individuals have maintained the status quo not only through economic means but also through gerrymandering electoral districts. For years, government officials have abused the decadal redistricting process by diluting a specific group of voters’ power (Nelson). Thus, another voter bloc may have an undue advantage during election season, causing the marginalized group to be subjected to policies they do not support; while this process may seem to support the concept of majority rule, the supposed minority is not the minority in many cases. Last year, a group of Black plaintiffs presented a case to the US Supreme Court, stating that the South Carolina state legislature redistricted thousands of Black individuals based on racial motives; however, the Court ruled that the district had been gerrymandered for political reasons, ignoring how the influence of Black voters had been diluted. Because the federal government cannot legally involve itself “in cases involving gerrymandering done for partisan advantage,” the Black litigants’ claims face intense scrutiny (Kruzel). Due to the subjective nature of racism, what one individual may proclaim as racist may not agree with another. When Black voters are unable to prove that there is a racist motive behind gerrymandering beyond a shadow of a doubt, these doctored districts stay. Although the Voter Rights Act of 1965 attempted to equalize suffrage, the voice of Black individuals in America continues to be silenced, preventing them from attempting to advance legislation that may help end the cycle of systemic racism.
Racist motives have also prevailed in many government policies, leading many Black people to be wrongfully criminalized. The Nixon administration launched the War on Drugs to unsettle the Black community while also making African Americans seem like an enemy in the public eye (Hodge & Dholakia). To mitigate widespread drug use, the campaign aimed to enforce stricter punishments on U.S. residents who were abusing drugs. Thus, law enforcement often targeted localities rumored to be hotspots; specifically, they raided inner city neighborhoods dominated by Black individuals (Alexander). Because of this, more African Americans were arrested for drug-related felonies compared to White individuals. This enforced the perception that Black people were frequently involved in felony activity and made Black individuals a recurrent target amongst the media. Additionally, many “African American men [had] criminal records” and thus lost crucial rights such as suffrage and financial freedom (Alexander). As part of their prison sentence, many Black people were forced to undertake unpaid labor. Because those incarcerated could no longer earn wages, many families might have faced financial hardship; if a family used to rely on that individual's income for household costs, they might struggle to meet basic expenses such as utilities. It is also possible that the other family members might have resorted to other methods such as robbery to fulfill basic needs, yet such actions would only lead to trouble with the law, reinforcing the cycle.
By criminalizing people of color, many authorities are able to extract forced labor through a loophole in the Thirteenth Amendment, perpetuating many aspects of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment outlaws slavery in the United States unless it is a criminal punishment, yet the current system within the United States exposes individuals to labor exploitation and abuse. For example, reports demonstrate that of the prisoners released in Louisiana in the first half of 2022, 26.8% of them had been jailed for longer than their sentence mandated (Kanu). Yet while kept in jail, many prisoners “earn little to no pay at all,” allowing for private companies to take advantage of cheap and undemanding labor (“Captive Labor”). Additionally, these prisoners lose out on income during the time they are working and cannot build the savings needed to pay for expenses after they are released. Moreover, Black individuals are incarcerated almost five times as much as White individuals, which is disproportionate to the American population, of which Black people only make up 12.4% whereas White people make up 61.6% (Spencer; Jones et al.). Logic may dictate for those incarcerated to be demographically similar to a country’s population, yet this is not true in the U.S. Soon after slavery was abolished, many states passed legislation criminalizing newly freed American Americans for minor infractions beyond the control of these individuals. Although these so-called black codes have largely been repealed, these statistics allude that such discriminatory practices may still occur. Without confronting the racial prejudice ingrained in the system, racial inequality in America prevails.
These consistent attacks on Black rights and equality have resulted in lower wages and inadequate healthcare. Many African Americans face devastating financial consequences due to imprisonment, reporting losses of more than fifty percent of their wages post-conviction—in part because they lose the opportunity to work during imprisonment and in part due to the negative stereotypes that employers adopt against former convicts (Craigie et al.). Even worse, Black people are disproportionately likely to be arrested due to stereotypes; recent events have unveiled the racism that plagues individual actors like police officers. Every step in the American legal system, from the initial arrest to the ramifications post-release like an inability to find work, disadvantages African Americans. Aforementioned decreased wages lead to additional consequences like a reliance on government-funded programs like Medicaid; therefore, Black people living in states that do not sponsor extended Medicaid programs are often left uninsured (Taylor). Thus, thanks to the inherent issues in the American healthcare system, the trap is set: either African Americans must earn enough to be able to afford expensive private healthcare, or they simply cannot be treated when they are ill, creating a dilemma that has long been neglected because of its obscured nature in governmental structures.
Despite the abolishment of slavery, African Americans continue to slave away under deeply rooted and systemic racism 150 years later. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence to safeguard the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness of the American public, yet African American individuals often find themselves locked out of these quintessential rights. It is the duty of Americans to recognize oppression for what it is: the inherently racist core of the United States. In only the pursuit of fairness may the pursuit of happiness be realized.
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