Many of the disparities between Black and White communities in the United States are an outgrowth of a long history of discriminatory and dehumanizing laws and policies that have created and exacerbated inequality in almost every sphere of life.
These laws and policies are built into the fundamental structures of our societies—our systems of labor, housing, education, voting, healthcare, and justice. They are deeply entrenched, intertwined, and insidious, and they form the foundation for structural racism.
The structural racism they uphold can be defined as the “overarching system of racial bias across institutions and society. These systems give privileges to White people resulting in disadvantages to people of color.”1 Understanding how racism is built into various social structures and quantifying its long-term effects is fundamental to the anti-racist work of dismantling these barriers.2
Americans have long been trained to see the deficiencies of people rather than policy. It’s a pretty easy mistake to make: People are in our faces. Policies are distant. We are particularly poor at seeing the policies lurking behind the struggles of people.
-Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist3
Work
Since the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution abolished slavery in 1865,4 laws and policies have been implemented that overwhelmingly favor and protect jobs for White people, often by discriminating against and denying opportunities to Black people.5
After Emancipation, Black Codes and Jim Crow laws continued to restrict freedoms and opportunities for Black people.
These regulations limited Black people’s occupations to farming and domestic servitude and forced them into onerous annual employment contracts.6
- The occupational segregation that laws enforced exacerbated racial inequality and devalued agricultural, domestic, and service occupations.7
Punishments for breaking these laws included being forced back into unpaid labor on White plantations.8
Black Codes morphed into Jim Crow laws that lasted from the 1890s until the 1960s.9
Working conditions for Black Americans were ignored in the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The New Deal’s Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 improved working conditions for White workers, but domestic, agricultural, and service occupations were exempted, heavily excluding Black workers and other workers of color for decades.10
- Today, women of color represent almost half of the low-wage workforce.11
Black Americans saw no reduction in hiring discrimination over 25 years.12
A meta-analysis of field experiments conducted from 1990 to 2015 showed that, on average, White applicants received 36% more callbacks than Black applicants with identical résumés, and that hiring rates had not changed over time.13
- Researchers surmise that insufficient oversight of the hiring process as well as little change in racial stereotypes and unconscious bias may be responsible.14
Black workers make up 13% of the workforce but file 26% of racial discrimination claims with the EEOC and partner agencies.15
Housing
Throughout the 20th century, federal housing policy and practices excluded Black families from opportunities to build home equity and accumulate wealth, creating generational repercussions. In contrast, federal intervention and investment has helped expand homeownership and affordable housing for countless White families.16
[The Fair Housing Act] exhorted segregation and enshrined it as public policy. Whole areas of cities were declared ineligible for loan guarantees.
-Kenneth T. Jackson17
“Redlining” prevented access to mortgages and home ownership.
Through its Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, the federal government “redlined” Black neighborhoods, using red ink on maps to indicate the neighborhoods to lenders. In so doing, the HOLC denied Black families access to mortgages and capital investment based strictly on where they lived.18
Between 1934 and 1962, of the $120 billion in loans made by the Federal Housing Administration, only 2% were distributed to non-White families.19
Three out of four neighborhoods redlined 80 years ago are still economically struggling today.20
Black Americans still feel the effects of this practice, with only around 41% owning a home between 2016 and 2019 compared to about 71% of White Americans.21
Housing discrimination remained legal until 1968.
Discrimination in housing against Black Americans was legally sanctioned until the 1968 passage of the Fair Housing Act.22
- The 1968 act lacked many enforcement provisions, however, and it did little to deter discriminatory housing practices.23
Although the Fair Housing Act was amended and strengthened in 1988, the National Fair Housing Alliance estimates there are still 4 million incidents of housing discrimination each year.24
The GI Bill and federal construction loans built a strong White middle class.
Explicitly racist policies prevented Black families from purchasing homes and segregated them from White neighborhoods.
After World War II, the GI Bill promised low-cost home loans to veterans, but few Black veterans were able to take advantage of the benefits because banks refused to approve financing for homes in Black neighborhoods.25
Black veterans were also prevented from buying into White suburbs because of formal and informal racism including restrictive deed covenants that prohibited the sale of properties in certain neighborhoods to non-Whites.26
Monies for GI Bill-funded programs were managed by local officials who showed overwhelming preference to White applicants. This practice was especially notable in the South.27
Federal, state, and local policies socially engineered residential segregation.
A variety of federal, state, and local government policies limited housing options for Black Americans, intentionally steering or keeping them in declining and segregated neighborhoods.
A New Deal policy known as the “neighborhood composition rule” said that public housing projects should not change the racial composition of the neighborhoods where they were built.28
Around mid-twentieth-century, the US federal government guaranteed construction loans to subdivision developers—on the condition that homes not be sold to Black families. The government also included a clause in the deed not to resell to Black Americans or others who would introduce an “incompatible racial element” to neighborhood schools.29
- In Levittown, Long Island, one of the first suburban developments built for veterans of World War II, homes were available only to White families. Sold for about $8,000 at the time, the homes are worth $300,000-$400,000 today.30
Federal and local officials intentionally routed new highways to raze integrated or Black neighborhoods when they got too close to White communities.31
Urban renewal programs relocated low-income Black residents away from desirable areas to public housing high rises or overcrowded neighborhoods.32
Segregated neighborhoods continue to affect access to education, transportation, quality health care, fresh food, and jobs.33
Because of segregation, middle-class Black families are now more likely to live in high-poverty neighborhoods than are low-income White families, and their children are more likely to attend high-poverty schools.34
State and local governments have a history of denying adequate public services to Black neighborhoods, some of which continues today, including providing less frequent garbage removal; re-zoning residential areas for mixed use, including industrial or toxic sites; and poorly maintaining infrastructure.35
Education
The federal, state, and local housing policies and practices that created segregated neighborhoods also created segregated schools and the educational disparities we see today.36
A long history of laws and policies intentionally limited the education of Black people.
The 1847 Virginia Criminal Code prohibited educating enslaved and free Black people.37
In the decades after the Civil War, Black students were prohibited from attending Southern colleges due to legal segregation, and they had limited access to Northern schools because of quota systems.38
In 1896, the US Supreme Court ruled in H.A. Plessy v. J.H. Ferguson that separate but equal schools did not violate the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment—even though schools were separate, but never equal.39
The GI Bill excluded Black veterans from many of its college benefits. Especially in the South, Black vets were denied equal access to college admission and benefits or were steered into vocational schools.40
Brown v. Board of Education ruled that separate is not equal.
In its 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the US Supreme Court outlawed racial segregation in public education. However, US public schools are still largely separate and unequal.41
Twenty-eight percent of Black students attend a high-poverty school in which 90% of the students are students of color.42
Funding public schools through property taxes exacerbates inequality.
Because public school funding often relies heavily on local property taxes, schools in more affluent White communities—bolstered by decades of housing policies that favored them—often have better paid teachers, better facilities, and more opportunities for students.43
In 2016, mostly White school districts received $23 billion more than mostly non-White school districts, despite serving about the same number of children.44
Voting Rights / Voter Suppression
Many laws have worked to suppress Black Americans’ right to vote, despite the ratification of the 15th Amendment, which in 1870 specifically stated that the right to vote could not be denied on the basis of race, and passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibited many discriminatory practices in states with a history of voter discrimination.45 As a result, Black citizens still face numerous barriers that suppress their ability to elect people into political office with similar interests and experiences, and White people have dominated political leadership positions.46
The suppression of the Black vote started in the 19th century.
Through the use of poll taxes, unfair literacy tests, “White primaries,” intimidation, and violence, Southern states severely restricted Black voting starting in the late 1800s.47
During Reconstruction in the South (1865-1877), over one-half million Black men registered to vote, but because of racist voting restrictions, by 1940 only 3% of voting-age Black men and women in the South were registered.48
Voter suppression also occurred in Western states. Oregon denied suffrage to most people of color until the mid-20th century.49
Policies and laws continue to suppress Black voters.
Recently, voter identification laws, reduced registration opportunities and polling places, reduced early voting, voter roll purging, and a US Supreme Court ruling are fueling a resurgence of voter suppression.50
Disenfranchisement laws prevent one in 13 Black Americans from voting.51
- Mandated voting ID laws hurt Black people: 25% of Black Americans compared to 8% of White Americans do not have a current government-issued photo ID.52
In 2011 alone, more than 30 states introduced new voter suppression legislation and 16 of them passed.53
In 2013, the US Supreme Court struck down part of the Voting Rights Act, opening the door for states with a history of voter suppression to manipulate voting procedures.54
Health and Healthcare
For all of US history, Black Americans have received unequal access to quality healthcare, resulting in health-related risks and stressors that go beyond individual behaviors or genetic issues. These “social determinants of health” create adverse health outcomes among Black Americans which are worse than those of any other racial or ethnic group.55
Black Americans are more likely to be uninsured and lack access to quality care.
Between 2010 and 2018, Black Americans were 1.5 times more likely to be uninsured than White Americans, even with the passing of the Affordable Care Act and the increased coverage gains made by many groups of color.56
Health care providers in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods typically offer lower-quality care.57
People of color receive lower-quality healthcare than their White counterparts, even after accounting for insurance status, income, age, and severity of conditions.58
Chronic exposure to racism and unfair treatment is linked to higher morbidity and mortality rates.59
The stress of living with structural racism can lead to increased disease and premature death.60
Discrimination is one of the social determinants of health, putting people of color at higher risk for Covid-19, as well as other illnesses including Type 2 diabetes, stroke, cancer, and kidney disease.61
The life expectancy for Black Americans is six years less than it is for White Americans.62
Black Americans are more exposed to pollution and unhealthy environments than other Americans.
Black people are 75% more likely than other Americans to live close to facilities that produce hazardous waste.63
Black people are exposed to 1.5 times more sooty pollution than others—regardless of income level.64
Partially due to lack of investment in green spaces and trees, historically redlined neighborhoods are 5 degrees hotter on average than non-redlined neighborhoods—and the differential has at times reached 20 degrees.65
Maternal and infant mortality for Black Americans is far higher than for White Americans.
Research has found that maternal stress brought on by cumulative experiences of racism and sexism is a factor in low birth weight—a leading cause of infant mortality.66
- Infants of Black mothers die at two times the rate of non-Hispanic White infants.67
Black mothers die at three to four times the rate of non-Hispanic White mothers.68
- Although Black women are 22% more likely than White women to die from heart disease, they are 243% more likely to die from maternity-related causes.69
The United States has a high maternal mortality rate compared to other affluent countries, and the disproportionate numbers of Black mothers dying is one of the drivers.70
Socioeconomic advantage matters little: A study in New York found that college-educated Black mothers were more likely to suffer severe complications from either pregnancy or childbirth than White women without a high school education.71
The Wealth Gap
Much wealth is passed down from generation to generation through monetary inheritances and property. As families accumulate wealth, they can achieve economic mobility for their children and grandchildren. Unequal opportunities to build wealth through access to home equity, high-wage jobs, and higher education has created a drastic wealth gap between White and Black Americans.72
This enormous difference in [wealth] is almost entirely attributable to federal housing policy implemented through the 20th century.
― Richard Rothstein73
Black families have significantly less wealth than White families.
In 2016, White families had an average net worth of $171,000, almost 10 times the $17,150 average for Black families.74
- For people in the top 10% of household income, White families have $1,789,300 in overall median net worth compared to $343,160 for Black families.75
Nationally, people of color are more likely to live in poverty than their White peers: While 10% of White, non-Hispanic Americans live in poverty, 23% of Black Americans do.76
Because many White families balk at buying homes in predominantly Black neighborhoods, home value appreciation—a major source of wealth—is inhibited for Black families.77
The devaluation of Black people’s work has long-term effects.
Black women make 62 cents for every dollar non-Hispanic White men make, based on full-time, year-round work.78
Black women have an average cumulative loss of $946,120 in income in their lifetimes.79
Predatory lenders and for-profit schools also contribute to the wealth gap.80
They target Black families with risky and overpriced products.
- Banks and other lenders have targeted Black families with expensive and unfair subprime loans that often resulted in foreclosure, especially during the 2008 housing crash.81
- Without as much generational wealth, Black students must take on more (and often riskier) debt to access higher education, making it harder for them to build wealth after graduation.82
- For-profit schools also target Black students, many of them older and part-time; 65% of Black borrowers at for-profit four-year colleges end up dropping out, responsible for paying down debts that did not result in a degree.83
Criminal Justice System
Throughout US history, the justice system has been used to watch, control, detain, exploit and, in too many cases, kill Black people.84
Mass surveillance of Black Americans began in the 17th century and continues today.
Throughout history, policing the ability of Black Americans to move around freely was a method of instilling fear and asserting White dominance. Many law enforcement methods today arose from those early practices.85
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 mandated that citizens aid and assist in the return of escaped slaves or face harsh penalties.86
Slave patrols made up of White community members beat, terrorized, and kept enslaved Americans under surveillance at the directive of local authorities.87
After the Civil War, vigilante groups including the Ku Klux Klan continued the tactics of the slave patrols to control and terrorize Black Americans.88
The US Supreme Court decision Terry v. Ohio in 1968 permitted police to stop and frisk a citizen based on a “reasonable suspicion” the person had committed a crime, a change from the standard of “probable cause.”89
- From 2004 to 2012, the New York Police Department briefly detained and usually physically searched 4.4 million people; 80% were Black or Latino, and in 98.5% of the searches, the subject was not carrying any weapon.90
Convict labor: a replacement for slavery.
The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution abolished slavery “except as a punishment for a crime.” This clause was used to justify “convict leasing” and other forms of prisoner labor that replicated slavery.91
To detain Black people, Southern states enacted “Black Codes” under which only Black people were arrested and prosecuted for minor offenses such as loitering, breaking curfew, vagrancy, carrying weapons, and not having proof of employment.92
As more and more Black people were incarcerated, states profited by leasing prisoners to private industries like railways and mining, where Black Americans were forced to do dangerous and deadly work for no pay.93
Today, at the Louisiana State Penitentiary known as Angola, prisoners, who are mostly Black, work in fields that were once part of a private slave plantation. They are supervised by mostly White guards, who are known as “Freemen.”94
Since 1990, Department of Defense surplus programs have increased many local police departments’ access to military grade equipment.
To help eliminate military waste and support the “war on drugs,” the Department of Defense introduced programs that provided police departments free access to military grade equipment. The equipment has included assault rifles, grenade launchers, battle uniforms, and armored vehicles.95
Police departments receiving the military equipment had more police violence and deployed the equipment more often to communities of color—in particular, Black communities.96
Use of force by police is one of the leading causes of death for men of color aged 25-29.97
Research has shown that about one in 1,000 Black men and boys will be killed by police, the highest lifetime risk for any racial or ethnic group.98
Ninety-nine percent of killings by police from 2013-2019 have not resulted in officers being charged with a crime.99
Black women were arrested three times more often than White women during police-initiated traffic and street stops and are more likely to have force used on them than White women.100
The prison population is disproportionately Black.101
Black adults are 5.9 times more likely to be incarcerated than White adults.102
- Thirty-three percent of US prisoners are Black, compared to 12% of the general population.103
- White people are 30% of prisoners and 63% of the general population.104
- Black women were nearly twice as likely to be incarcerated as White women in 2017.105
In 2020, 41.4% of prisoners on death row were Black, and 42.2% were White.106
Black youth are overrepresented in the juvenile justice system: 14% of the general US population under the age of 18 is Black, but 42% of boys in juvenile facilities are Black, as are 35% of girls.107
Bail bonds are set twice as high for Black defendants than for White defendants.108
Young Black men are 50% more likely than White defendants to be held in pretrial detention.109
Ex-offenders face high unemployment and hiring bias after reentry.
While many employers are reluctant to hire job applicants with a criminal record, multiple studies have found they are even less likely to hire Black people with criminal records.110
- A study in New York City found that only 10% of Black job applicants with a criminal record received a call back or job offer, compared with 22% of White applicants with a criminal record and 25% of Black applicants without a criminal record—all of whom had identical résumés.111
Resources
Research, Reading, and Resources for the Antiracist: Ask Catalyst Express
To make constructive change, we must work to counter the biases that cause us to have very different experiences.
Day-to-Day Experiences of Emotional Tax Among Women and Men of Color in the Workplace (Report)
Learn what Emotional Tax is and how it affects both employees of color and organizations.
Emotional Tax: How Black Women and Men Pay More at Work and How Leaders Can Take Action (Report)
Emotional Tax is the experience of being different from peers because of your gender/race/ethnicity and the associated detrimental effects
Empowering Workplaces Combat Emotional Tax for People of Colour in Canada (Report)
Learn about the experience of Emotional Tax by women of colour in Canada and the effects of empowering workplaces.
Endnotes
1 National Museum of African American History & Culture, “Being Antiracist.”
2 National Museum of African American History & Culture, “Being Antiracist.”
3 Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist (New York: One World, 2019): p. 28.
4 Library of Congress, “13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Primary Documents in American History.”
5 Danyelle Solomon, Connor Maxwell, and Abril Castro, Systematic Inequality and Economic Opportunity (Center for American Progress, August 7, 2019).
6 Danyelle Solomon, Connor Maxwell, and Abril Castro, Systematic Inequality and Economic Opportunity (Center for American Progress, August 7, 2019).
7 Danyelle Solomon, Connor Maxwell, and Abril Castro, Systematic Inequality and Economic Opportunity (Center for American Progress, August 7, 2019).
8 Danyelle Solomon, Connor Maxwell, and Abril Castro, Systematic Inequality and Economic Opportunity (Center for American Progress, August 7, 2019).
9 Constitutional Rights Foundation, “Southern Black Codes.”
10 Danyelle Solomon, Connor Maxwell, and Abril Castro, Systematic Inequality and Economic Opportunity (Center for American Progress, August 7, 2019).
11 Catalyst, Quick Take: Women of Color in the United States (March 19, 2020).
12 Lincoln Quillian, Devah Pager, Arnfinn H. Midtbøen, and Ole Hexel, “Hiring Discrimination Against Black Americans Hasn’t Declined in 25 Years,” Harvard Business Review, October 11, 2017.
13 Lincoln Quillian, Devah Pager, Arnfinn H. Midtbøen, and Ole Hexel, “Hiring Discrimination Against Black Americans Hasn’t Declined in 25 Years,” Harvard Business Review, October 11, 2017.
14 Lincoln Quillian, Devah Pager, Arnfinn H. Midtbøen, and Ole Hexel, “Hiring Discrimination Against Black Americans Hasn’t Declined in 25 Years,” Harvard Business Review, October 11, 2017.
15 Maryam Jameel and Joe Yerardi, “Workplace Discrimination is Illegal. But Our Data Shows It’s Still a Huge Problem,” Vox, February 28, 2019.
16 Danyelle Solomon, Connor Maxwell, and Abril Castro, Systemic Inequality: Displacement, Exclusion, and Segregation (Center for American Progress, August 7, 2019); Richard D. Kahlenberg and Kimberly Quick, “The Government Created Housing Segregation. Here’s How the Government Can End It,” The American Prospect, July 2, 2019.
17 Equal Justice Initiative, “Banks Continue to Deny Home Loans to People of Color” (February 19, 2018).
18 Bruce Mitchell and Juan Franco, HOLC ‘Redlining’ Maps: The Persistent Structure Of Segregation And Economic Inequality (National Community Reinvestment Coalition, March 20, 2018).
19 Danyelle Solomon, Connor Maxwell, and Abril Castro, Systemic Inequality: Displacement, Exclusion, and Segregation (Center for American Progress, August 7, 2019).
20 Meghan Resler, Systems of Trauma: Racial Trauma (Family and Children’s Trust Fund of Virginia, May 1, 2019).
21 Michele Lerner, “Report: Overall U.S. Homeownership Rate Rises, but Drops Among Blacks,” The Washington Post, March 19, 2020.
22 “After 20 Years, Fair Housing Teeth,” The New York Times, August 8, 1988.
23 “After 20 Years, Fair Housing Teeth,” The New York Times, August 8, 1988.
24 Shanti Abedin, Cathy Cloud, Alia Fierro, Debby Goldberg, Jorge Andres Soto, and Morgan Williams, Making Every Neighborhood a Place of Opportunity: 2018 Fair Housing Trends Report, (National Fair Housing Alliance, 2018): p. 11.
25 David Callahan, “How the GI Bill Left Out African Americans,” Demos, November 11, 2013.
26 David Callahan, “How the GI Bill Left Out African Americans,” Demos, November 11, 2013; Catherine Silva, “Racial Restrictive Covenants History (The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, The University of Washington).
27 Brandon Weber, “How African American WWII Veterans Were Scorned By the G.I. Bill,” The Progressive, November 10, 2017.
28 Richard Rothstein, The Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods – A Constitutional Insult (Economic Policy Institute, November 12, 2014).
29 Richard Rothstein, The Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods – A Constitutional Insult (Economic Policy Institute, November 12, 2014).
30 Richard Rothstein, The Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods – A Constitutional Insult (Economic Policy Institute, November 12, 2014); “‘The Color Of Law’ Details How U.S. Housing Policies Created Segregation,” All Things Considered, NPR, May 17, 2017.
31 Richard Rothstein, The Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods – A Constitutional Insult (Economic Policy Institute, November 12, 2014).
32 Richard Rothstein, The Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods – A Constitutional Insult (Economic Policy Institute, November 12, 2014).
33 Richard D. Kahlenberg and Kimberly Quick, “The Government Created Housing Segregation. Here’s How the Government Can End It,” The American Prospect, July 2, 2019; Donald F. Schwarz, “What’s the Connection Between Residential Segregation and Health?,” Culture of Health Blog, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, April 3, 2018.
34 Richard D. Kahlenberg and Kimberly Quick, “The Government Created Housing Segregation. Here’s How the Government Can End It,” The American Prospect, July 2, 2019.
35 Richard Rothstein, The Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods – A Constitutional Insult (Economic Policy Institute, November 12, 2014).
36 Richard Rothstein, The Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods – A Constitutional Insult (Economic Policy Institute, November 12, 2014).
37 Ronald E. Butchart, “Freedman’s Education in Virginia, 1861-1870 (Encyclopedia Virginia and Library of Virginia); Library of Congress, “Brown v. Board at Fifty: ‘With an Even Hand’ A Century of Racial Segregation, 1849–1950.”
38 Leslie M. Harris, “The Long, Ugly History of Racism at American Universities,” The New Republic, March 26, 2015.
39 Library of Congress, “Brown v. Board at Fifty: ‘With an Even Hand’ A Century of Racial Segregation, 1849–1950.”
40 Joseph Thompson, “GI Bill Opened Doors to College for Many Vets, But Politicians Created a Separate One for Blacks,” The Conversation, November 9, 2019.
41 Brad Bennett, “Weekend Read: 66 Years After Brown v. Board, Schools Across the South Still Separate and Unequal,” Southern Poverty Law Center, May 16, 2020.
42 Reed Jordan, “Millions of Black Students Attend Public Schools That are Highly Segregated by Race and by Income,” Urban Institute, October 29, 2014.
43 “Why America’s Schools Have A Money Problem,” Morning Edition, NPR, April 18, 2016.
44 Laura Meckler, “Report Finds $23 Billion Racial Funding Gap for Schools,” The Washington Post, February 26, 2019.
45 Danyelle Solomon, Connor Maxwell, and Abril Castro, Systematic Inequality and American Democracy (Center for American Progress, August 7, 2019); United States Department of Justice, “Introduction To Federal Voting Rights Laws“; Constitutional Rights Foundation, “Race and Voting.”
46 Alexa Lardieri, “Despite Diverse Demographics, Most Politicians Are Still White Men,” U.S. News & World Report, October 24, 2017.
47 Constitutional Rights Foundation, “Race and Voting”; Constitutional Rights Foundation, “Southern Black Codes.”
48 Constitutional Rights Foundation, “Race and Voting.”
49 Danyelle Solomon, Connor Maxwell, and Abril Castro, Systematic Inequality and American Democracy (Center for American Progress, August 7, 2019).
50 ACLU, “Block the Vote: Voter Suppression,” February 3, 2020.
51 ACLU, “Block the Vote: Voter Suppression,” February 3, 2020.
52 ACLU, “Oppose Voter ID Legislation—Fact Sheet.”
53 ACLU, “The Facts About Voter Suppression.”
54 Emilye Crosby and Judy Richardson, Voting Rights Act: Beyond the Headlines (Civil Rights Teaching).
55 CDC, “Social Determinants of Equity and Social Determinants of Health”; W.M. Byrd and L.A. Clayton, “Race, Medicine, and Health Care in the United States: A Historical Survey,” The Journal of the National Medical Association, vol. 92, no. 3 (March 2001).
56 Samantha Artiga, Kendal Orgera, and Olivia Pham, “Disparities in Health and Health Care: Five Key Questions and Answers,” KFF, March 4, 2020.
57 Jamila Taylor, Racism, Inequality, and Health Care for African Americans (The Century Foundation, December 19, 2019).
58 Khiara M. Bridges, “Implicit Bias and Racial Disparities in Health Care,” (American Bar Association).
59 Niran S. Al-Agba, “How Structural Racism Affects Healthcare,” MedPage Today, January 14, 2020.
60 Niran S. Al-Agba, “How Structural Racism Affects Healthcare,” MedPage Today, January 14, 2020.
61 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Health Equity Considerations and Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups” (July 24, 2020); William C. Cockerham, Bryant W. Hamby, Gabriela R. Oates, “The Social Determinants of Chronic Disease,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, vol. 52, no. 1 (January 1, 2017).
62 Niran S. Al-Agba, “How Structural Racism Affects Healthcare,” MedPage Today, January 14, 2020.
63 Linda Villarosa, “Pollution Is Killing Black Americans. This Community Fought Back,” The New York Times, July 28, 2020.
64 Linda Villarosa, “Pollution Is Killing Black Americans. This Community Fought Back,” The New York Times, July 28, 2020.
65 Daniel Cusick, “Past Racist ‘Redlining’ Practices Increased Climate Burden on Minority Neighborhoods,” Scientific American, January 21, 2020.
66 Esther Gross, Victoria Efetevbia, and Alexandria Wilkins, “Racism and Sexism Against Black Women May Contribute to High Rates of Black Infant Mortality,” Child Trends, April 18, 2019.
67 Cristina Novoa and Jamila Taylor, Exploring African Americans’ High Maternal and Infant Death Rates (Center for American Progress, February 1, 2018).
68 Cristina Novoa and Jamila Taylor, Exploring African Americans’ High Maternal and Infant Death Rates (Center for American Progress, February 1, 2018).
69 Nina Martin and Renee Montagne, “Black Mothers Keep Dying After Giving Birth. Shalon Irving’s Story Explains Why,” All Things Considered, NPR, December 7, 2017.
70 Nina Martin and Renee Montagne, “Black Mothers Keep Dying After Giving Birth. Shalon Irving’s Story Explains Why,” All Things Considered, NPR, December 7, 2017.
71 Nina Martin and Renee Montagne, “Black Mothers Keep Dying After Giving Birth. Shalon Irving’s Story Explains Why,” All Things Considered, NPR, December 7, 2017.
72 Angela Hanks, Danyelle Solomon, and Christian E. Weller, Systematic Inequality (Center for American Progress, February 21, 2018); Kriston McIntosh, Emily Moss, Ryan Nunn, and Jay Shambaugh, “Examining the Black-White Wealth Gap,” Brookings, February 27, 2020.
73 Pedro da Costa, “Housing Discrimination Underpins the Staggering Wealth Gap Between Blacks and Whites,” Economic Policy Institute, April 8, 2019.
74 Kriston McIntosh, Emily Moss, Ryan Nunn, and Jay Shambaugh, “Examining the Black-White Wealth Gap,” Brookings, February 27, 2020.
75 Kriston McIntosh, Emily Moss, Ryan Nunn, and Jay Shambaugh, “Examining the Black-White Wealth Gap,” Brookings, February 27, 2020.
76 U.S. Census Bureau, “Table S1701: Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months,” American Community Survey, 2018: ACS 1-Year Estimates Subject Tables (2018).
77 Richard D. Kahlenberg and Kimberly Quick, “The Government Created Housing Segregation. Here’s How the Government Can End It,” The American Prospect, July 2019.
78 U.S. Census Bureau, “Table PINC-05. Work Experience-People 15 Years Old and Over, by Total Money Earnings, Age, Race, Hispanic Origin, Sex, and Disability Status,” Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (2018).
79 Catalyst, Quick Take: Women’s Earnings – The Pay Gap (March 2, 2020).
80 Larry Schwartztol, “Predatory Lending: Wall Street Profited, Minority Families Paid the Price,” ACLU, September 16, 2011; Jen Mishory, Mark Huelsman, and Suzanne Kahn, How Student Debt and the Racial Wealth Gap Reinforce Each Other (The Century Foundation, September 9, 2019).
81 Larry Schwartztol, “Predatory Lending: Wall Street Profited, Minority Families Paid the Price,” ACLU, September 16, 2011.
82 Jen Mishory, Mark Huelsman, and Suzanne Kahn, How Student Debt and the Racial Wealth Gap Reinforce Each Other (The Century Foundation, September 9, 2019).
83 Jen Mishory, Mark Huelsman, and Suzanne Kahn, How Student Debt and the Racial Wealth Gap Reinforce Each Other (The Century Foundation, September 9, 2019).
84 Elizabeth Hinton, LeShae Henderson, and Cindy Reed, An Unjust Burden: The Disparate Treatment of Black Americans in the Criminal Justice System (Vera Institute of Justice, May 2018).
85 Chelsea Hansen, “Slave Patrols: An Early Form of American Policing,” Blog on The Beat, National Law Enforcement Museum, July 10, 2019.
86 James C. Cobb, “One of American History’s Worst Laws Was Passed 165 Years Ago,” Time, September 18, 2015.
87 Chelsea Hansen, “Slave Patrols: An Early Form of American Policing,” Blog on the Beat, National Law Enforcement Museum, July 10, 2019.
88 Chelsea Hansen, “Slave Patrols: An Early Form of American Policing,” Blog on the Beat, National Law Enforcement Museum, July 10, 2019.
89 Robert M. Rich, “Stop and Frisk – An Historical and Empirical Assessment,” Essays on the Theory and Practice of Criminal Justice (1977).
90 Barton Gellman and Sam Adler-Bell, The Disparate Impact of Surveillance (The Century Foundation, December 21, 2017).
91 Shane Bauer, “The Origins of Prison Slavery,” Slate, October 2, 2018.
92 Equal Justice Initiative, “Convict Leasing.”
93 Equal Justice Initiative, “Convict Leasing.”
94 Whitney Benns, “American Slavery, Reinvented,” The Atlantic, September 21, 2015; Voices Behind Bars: National Public Radio and Angola State Prison, “Angola State Prison: A Short History,” (Knight Case Studies Initiative, The Journalism School, Columbia University).
95 Talib Visram, “Eliminating This Federal Program Would Play a Major Part in Demilitarizing the Police,” Fast Company, June 8, 2020.
96 Talib Visram, “Eliminating This Federal Program Would Play a Major Part in Demilitarizing the Police,” Fast Company, June 8, 2020.
97 Frank Edwards, Hedwig Lee, and Michael Esposito, “Risk of Being Killed by Police Use-of-Force in the U.S. by Age, Race/Ethnicity, and Sex,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences vol. 116, no. 34 (August 2019).
98 Frank Edwards, Hedwig Lee, and Michael Esposito, “Risk of Being Killed by Police Use-of-Force in the U.S. by Age, Race/Ethnicity, and Sex,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 116, no. 34 (August 2019).
99 Mapping Police Violence, “Police Violence Map.”
100 Prison Policy Initiative, “Policing Women: Race and Gender Disparities in Police Stops, Searches, and Use of Force,” May 14, 2019.
101 John Gramlich, “Black imprisonment rate in the U.S. has fallen by a third since 2006,” Pew Research Center, May 6, 2020.
102 The Sentencing Project, Report to the United Nations on Racial Disparities in the U.S. Criminal Justice System (April 19, 2018).
103 John Gramlich, “Black imprisonment rate in the U.S. has fallen by a third since 2006,” Pew Research Center, May 6, 2020.
104 John Gramlich, “Black imprisonment rate in the U.S. has fallen by a third since 2006,” Pew Research Center, May 6, 2020.
105 The Sentencing Project, Incarcerated Women and Girls (June 6, 2019).
106 Death Penalty Information Center, “Racial Demographics,” January 1, 2020.
107 Wendy Sawyer, Youth Confinement: The Whole Pie 2019 (Prison Policy Initiative, December 19, 2019).
108 Wendy Sawyer, “How Race Impacts Who is Detained Pretrial,” Prison Policy Initiative, October 9, 2019.
109 Wendy Sawyer, “How Race Impacts Who is Detained Pretrial,” Prison Policy Initiative, October 9, 2019.
110 Marilyn C. Moses, “How Likely Are Ex-Offenders to Get a Job Offer?,” Corrections Today, May/June 2014.
111 Marilyn C. Moses, “How Likely Are Ex-Offenders to Get a Job Offer?,” Corrections Today, May/June 2014.