In my last piece, I discussed how depreciating ‘black thought’ on the collegiate level is detrimental to the purposefulness and relevance of Historically Black Colleges/Universities. However, I failed to provide the reason to why such oppressive ideologies and beliefs still exist. In this article, I want to address ‘White America’, as a whole. Although I do believe that there is a minority within ‘White America’ who understand the complexities of racism, a majority of White Americans believe racism does not exist in America today. As a black male, I’m here to tell you that’s just not the case.
Dear White America,
During the year 1787, while the newly-written Preamble of the U.S. Constitution promised to “insure domestic tranquility and promote general welfare”, enslaved Africans were being egregiously stripped of their personhood. From being captured in their native lands to being forced to perform inhumane acts, Africans relentlessly endured the intentional dehumanization of their people. From this institution of slavery, Americanized racism, the discrimination against a group of people on the sole basis of skin color, was born. The affects of this racial institution still resonate in modern-day America. When arguing that racism no longer exist, White America you’re failing to realize that institutional racism, discriminatory ideologies that have been embedded in the institutions in which we govern ourselves, adversely affect the lives of African-Americans.
To explain the concept of institutional racism, I’ll use the American justice system, an institution that has some overt racist practices. According to a study by the Wall Street Journal, African-Americans are sentenced to 20% longer prison terms than white people for the same crimes. The same study also concluded that African-Americans are 38% more likely to sentenced to death than Caucasian-Americans for crimes of the same severity. When analyzing these statistics, we have to understand why the inconsistencies in our justice system exist. There is a disproportionate representation of African-Americans as judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and jurors. The mandatory sentencing for drugs that majorly affect African-American communities are harsher than sentences for drugs in Caucasian communities. The strategies that law enforcement officials employ to police African-American communities, often times than not, hyper-criminalize black males (i.e. New York’s “Stop and Frisk”). From this, we see how the policies that are enforced by the justice system, an institution in which ascribe to, are embedded in discriminatory ideologies.
Keep in mind, I explained the inconsistencies in the American justice system because it is fairly simple to understand how it does not uphold the value of justice for African-Americans However, from healthcare to education, I could have addressed a plethora of institutions that persist with embedded racist ideologies.
Because of this I can not accept your notion that we live in a “post-racial” society. Until the institutions we live by provide a quality of life that is accessible to all people regardless of the color of their skin, racism in America will continue to exist. So, as of now, I will use every platform I have to voice how oppressive these institutions are to my people. And, I’ll do it......unapologetically. Our voices will not be silenced.
Signed,
Another Black Voice
