Reparations 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

[baddog]

17 minutes ago, Big girl said:

You are by far the dumbest person on this thread. THE LAND WAS RETURNED TO WHITE PEOPLE AFTER LINCOLN DIED.

Aren’t you still on this thread? I beg to differ. 
 

Despite substantial hurdles, Black Americans still managed to 

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 15 million acres of land by 1910, much of which was used for agricultural purposes. At the peak in 1920, Black families owned and operated 

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 of a million farms – about 14 percent of all farms at the time. The ability to grow crops and raise livestock afforded Black families not just food and financial security but also the opportunity for upward mobility.

[Big girl]

13 minutes ago, baddog said:

Aren’t you still on this thread? I beg to differ. 
 

Despite substantial hurdles, Black Americans still managed to 

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 15 million acres of land by 1910, much of which was used for agricultural purposes. At the peak in 1920, Black families owned and operated 

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 of a million farms – about 14 percent of all farms at the time. The ability to grow crops and raise livestock afforded Black families not just food and financial security but also the opportunity for upward mobility.

What happened to the land?

[CardinalBacker]

2 hours ago, Big girl said:

Black Wallstreet was bombed. Where did they get the planes and the bombs?

That’s never been proven. 

[Big girl]

8 minutes ago, CardinalBacker said:

That’s never been proven. 

Yes, it has been proven.

[Big girl]

27 minutes ago, baddog said:

Aren’t you still on this thread? I beg to differ. 
 

Despite substantial hurdles, Black Americans still managed to 

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 15 million acres of land by 1910, much of which was used for agricultural purposes. At the peak in 1920, Black families owned and operated 

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 of a million farms – about 14 percent of all farms at the time. The ability to grow crops and raise livestock afforded Black families not just food and financial security but also the opportunity for upward mobility.

Black people were lynched so that whites could get their land.

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[baddog]

1 minute ago, Big girl said:

Black people were lynched so that whites could get their land.

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Must have been your democrats who you love so much, and it sure wasn't me, but hate me anyway for my skin color. Thought that was what you are against. Just play it the way you have to, but you fool no one. 

[Reagan]

11 minutes ago, Big girl said:

Black people were lynched so that whites could get their land.

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Remember, Big girl, that it was your Democrats that were the racist.  You know, KKK and all.  Just saying!

[BS Wildcats]

1 hour ago, Reagan said:

Remember, Big girl, that it was your Democrats that were the racist.  You know, KKK and all.  Just saying!

But she keeps telling everyone that the parties switched.  

[CardinalBacker]

1 hour ago, Big girl said:

Black people were lynched so that whites could get their land.

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That’s an interesting article… it’s just a little misleading in my opinion on a few issues. While it’s true that black farmers’ are shrinking, the number of white farmers has shrunk by comparable numbers. Corporations hold the vast majority of farmland, not whites… something that the article doesn’t  present. 
 

One absolute fact that the article presented is that black people almost NEVER do any type of estate planning. There almost never wills probated, so the land is considered “heirship property.” That’s a term that is almost never heard regarding white-held properties. My grandparents weren’t wealthy, but all four had their estates handled… my parents are still alive, but their arrangements are already set. That’s just not something you see in the black community and it’s led to a lot of property being lost to the tax man. 
There are a lot of different reasons for that… I don’t imagine that I’d be comfortable around the county courthouse in East Texas if I were a black man in the 1950s. But neglecting to handle ownership issues and pay property taxes has definitely hurt the black community. 

[CardinalBacker]

6 hours ago, Big girl said:

What do you think about redlining? Also, there were cities where blacks were really prosperous and white people destroyed them. Rosewood is an example. Also cities in which blacks were doing well were targets of the kkk. They terrorized blacks, and destroyed cities, the blacks that could afford to move did, the others stayed in the city. This was the start of the ghetto.

Closer to home… look at Port Arthur. I was born in Port Arthur. I left for good in 1999. What was a diverse area in the ‘60s has been decimated in my lifetime with no help from the Klan. The Klan wasn’t a force in Chicago, Detroit, East St Louis, the Bronx, the fifth ward in Houston, etc… those urban areas were destroyed by their inhabitants in my lifetime. 
 

So why are we still talking about things that occurred to your community 100 years ago by long dead whites when y’all are doing it to yourselves in 2022?

 

[Big girl]

1 hour ago, CardinalBacker said:

Closer to home… look at Port Arthur. I was born in Port Arthur. I left for good in 1999. What was a diverse area in the ‘60s has been decimated in my lifetime with no help from the Klan. The Klan wasn’t a force in Chicago, Detroit, East St Louis, the Bronx, the fifth ward in Houston, etc… those urban areas were destroyed by their inhabitants in my lifetime. 
 

So why are we still talking about things that occurred to your community 100 years ago by long dead whites when y’all are doing it to yourselves in 2022?

 

Doing what? I live in a 5 br, 4ba house in a minority neighborhood. My house is worth 300000.  I told you how the ghettos originated 

[Big girl]

2 hours ago, BS Wildcats said:

But she keeps telling everyone that the parties switched.  

They did.

[CardinalBacker]

7 minutes ago, Big girl said:

They did.

My contention is that they didn’t. The Democrats have always been the party of racial politics. When it got the point that being anti-black wouldn’t earn the Dems any votes, they tapped into the OTHER races’ anger towards whites. Now being a dem means being anti-white for the most part. 
 

The republicans have literally been on the moral side of every argument from slavery to abortion for the last 180 years. 

[Unwoke]

Can you repeat that for the people in the back row….especially the liberals who’ve been brainwashed from liberal professors.😂

 

 

[CardinalBacker]

19 minutes ago, Big girl said:

Doing what? I live in a 5 br, 4ba house in a minority neighborhood. My house is worth 300000.  I told you how the ghettos originated 

Sure. It was in German occupied territories during WWII. Y’all then appropriated their culture, lol. 
 

So how were you successful with all of the racism that exists here? I don’t know you, but I’ll bet that you:

1. Finished high school 

2. Got married 

3. Got a degree or at least a tech school

4. Attend church

5. Didn’t have kids before you could support them

6. Were raised in a home with a mom and dad. 
 

If not all, at least five of those things. Your success or lack thereof has nothing to with your skin color. 
 

EDIT… And based on your description of your son, I’ll bet he had most, if not all, of those things working in his benefit, too. 

[Big girl]

5 minutes ago, CardinalBacker said:

My contention is that they didn’t. The Democrats have always been the party of racial politics. When it got the point that being anti-black wouldn’t earn the Dems any votes, they tapped into the OTHER races’ anger towards whites. Now being a dem means being anti-white for the most part. 
 

The republicans have literally been on the moral side of every argument from slavery to abortion for the last 180 years. 

Wrong. The Republicans and Democrats switched ideologies ending with the racist Democrats (Dixiecrats) leaving the Democratix party in the 1960s. This was part of Nixons southern strategy.

[Big girl]

2 minutes ago, CardinalBacker said:

Sure. It was in German occupied territories during WWII. Y’all then appropriated their culture, lol. 
 

So how were you successful with all of the racism that exists here? I don’t know you, but I’ll bet that you:

1. Finished high school 

2. Got married 

3. Got a degree or at least a tech school

4. Attend church

5. Didn’t have kids before you could support them

6. Were raised in a home with a mom and dad. 
 

If not all, at least five of those things. Your success or lack thereof has nothing to with your skin color. 

Just because I am successful doesn't mean that systemic racism doesn't exist

[Unwoke]

15 minutes ago, Big girl said:

Wrong. The Republicans and Democrats switched ideologies ending with the racist Democrats (Dixiecrats) leaving the Democratix party in the 1960s. This was part of Nixons southern strategy.

Dang….Dr. Carol Swain must be totally confused about her history then. 
 

 

 

[CardinalBacker]

1 hour ago, Big girl said:

Just because I am successful doesn't mean that systemic racism doesn't exist

Can you point at a racist policy that exists today that we can fight?

[Reagan]

2 hours ago, Big girl said:

Just because I am successful doesn't mean that systemic racism doesn't exist

I'll ask you again:  can you define "systemic racism"?  And can you give us examples of systemic racism?!

[baddog]

8 hours ago, Big girl said:

Doing what? I live in a 5 br, 4ba house in a minority neighborhood. My house is worth 300000.  I told you how the ghettos originated 

Mine is worth $350 and I didn’t finish college. Must be racism, white privilege, white supremacy…..whatever we want to call it today.

When is an area considered a ghetto? I was wondering what qualifies that term. Will reparations turn things around?

[CardinalBacker]

10 hours ago, Big girl said:

Wrong. The Republicans and Democrats switched ideologies ending with the racist Democrats (Dixiecrats) leaving the Democratix party in the 1960s. This was part of Nixons southern strategy.

That’s partly true. Do you remember Strom Thurmond? He was a Democrat turned Dixiecrat from South Carolina who eventually turned Republican. He was a long-term Senator who served in the Senate from 1954 to 2003. He spent his later years apologizing for his previous stances on segregation and his opposition to the Civil Rights Act. 
 

He eventually died and you’ll never guess who was the main speaker at his funeral. A young senator from Delaware named Joseph Biden. Apparently Thurmond was Biden’s hero. Apparently race hustlers respect each others’ games. 
 

You literally can’t make this stuff up. 
 

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[baddog]

Big Girl. Watch and learn. 
 

 

[Big girl]

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Abstract

Racism is not always conscious, explicit, or readily visible—often it is systemic and structural. Systemic and structural racism are forms of racism that are pervasively and deeply embedded in systems, laws, written or unwritten policies, and entrenched practices and beliefs that produce, condone, and perpetuate widespread unfair treatment and oppression of people of color, with adverse health consequences. Examples include residential segregation, unfair lending practices and other barriers to home ownership and accumulating wealth, schools’ dependence on local property taxes, environmental injustice, biased policing and sentencing of men and boys of color, and voter suppression policies. This article defines systemic and structural racism, using examples; explains how they damage health through many causal pathways; and suggests approaches to dismantling them. Because systemic and structural racism permeate all sectors and areas, addressing them will require mutually reinforcing actions in multiple sectors and places; acknowledging their existence is a crucial first step.

 

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When most people think about racism, they probably think of racial slurs, hate crimes, or other overtly racist actions. There are, however, other less obvious yet ultimately even more destructive forms of racism. Structural and systemic racism are often invisible—at least to those who are not its victims. This article defines structural and systemic racism, explains how they damage health, and provides illustrative examples. Although we focus on how structural and systemic racism can harm the health of people of color, they also may damage the health and well-being of a society overall

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—including the health and well-being of White people.

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Definitions

People of color is a term used to refer to African Americans, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, Latinos/Hispanics, and Native Hawaiians/other Pacific Islanders. Racism is the relegation of people of color to inferior status and treatment based on unfounded beliefs about innate inferiority, as well as unjust treatment and oppression of people of color, whether intended or not. Racism is not always conscious, intentional, or explicit—often it is systemic and structural.

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 Systemic and structural racism are forms of racism that are pervasively and deeply embedded in and throughout systems, laws, written or unwritten policies, entrenched practices, and established beliefs and attitudes that produce, condone, and perpetuate widespread unfair treatment of people of color.

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 They reflect both ongoing and historical injustices. Although systemic racism and structural racism are often used interchangeably, they have somewhat different emphases. Systemicracism emphasizes the involvement of whole systems, and often all systems—for example, political, legal, economic, health care, school, and criminal justice systems—including the structures that uphold the systems.

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Structuralracism emphasizes the role of the structures (laws, policies, institutional practices, and entrenched norms) that are the systems’ scaffolding.

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 Because systemic racism includes structural racism, for brevity we often use systemic racism to refer to both; at times we use both for emphasis. Institutional racism is sometimes used as a synonym for systemic or structural racism, as it captures the involvement of institutional systems and structures in race-based discrimination and oppression;

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 it may also refer specifically to racism within a particular institution.

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Gilbert Gee and Annie Ro depict systemic racism as the hidden base of an iceberg

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 (see illustration in online appendix exhibit 1).

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 The iceberg’s visible part represents the overt racism that manifests in blatant discrimination and hate crimes—explicitly racist treatment that may be relatively easy to recognize. The iceberg’s base—the much larger, usually unseen part—represents systemic and structural racism. It consists of the societal systems and structures that expose people of color to health-harming conditions and that impose and sustain barriers to opportunities that promote good health and well-being. The opportunities denied include access to good jobs with benefits; safe, unpolluted neighborhoods with good schools; high-quality health care; and fair treatment by the criminal justice system. Systemic racism is the iceberg’s more dangerous part: It places people of color at a disadvantage in multiple domains affecting health in ways often more difficult to recognize than explicit interpersonal racism.

Systemic racism is so embedded in systems that it often is assumed to reflect the natural, inevitable order of things.

Systemic racism is so embedded in systems that it often is assumed to reflect the natural, inevitable order of things. Slavery—explicitly supported by laws—endured for 250 years in the United States and was followed by almost 100 years of Jim Crow laws—often enforced by terror—that were deliberately designed to restrict the rights of African Americans, including the rights to vote, work, and get an education. Although civil rights legislation in the 1960s made it illegal to discriminate, enforcement of these antidiscrimination laws has been inadequate.

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 Racial inequities, and their ensuing socioeconomic and health consequences, persist because of deeply rooted, unfair systems that sustain the legacy of former overtly discriminatory practices, policies, laws, and beliefs. At times, these systems and structures, which are rooted in beliefs in White supremacy, operate unconsciously or unintentionally, but nevertheless effectively, to produce and sustain racial discrimination. Systemic racism systematically and pervasively puts Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color at compounded disadvantage within society. It often can be traced to deliberate acts of discrimination in the past, such as laws mandating residential segregation by race. Once in place, however, systemic racism is often self-perpetuating, with persistently damaging effects on health even after the explicitly discriminatory measures are no longer in effect.

The terms systemic, structural, and institutional racism, or closely related concepts, were first used by social scientists. Sociologist David Williams

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 and others

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 have traced the key concepts back to the distinguished social scientist W. E. B. Du Bois, who wrote (around 1900) about how racial discrimination was institutionalized within multiple sectors of society and was self-perpetuating.

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 Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton noted the institutionalization of racial discrimination “within large sectors of the American society, including the labor market, the educational system, and the welfare bureaucracy…and racial segregation.”

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Joe Feagin and Kimberley Ducey wrote: “Systemic racism includes the complex array of antiblack practices, the unjustly-gained political-economic power of whites, the continuing economic and other resource inequalities along racial lines, and the white racist attitudes created to maintain and rationalize white privilege and power. Systemic here means that the core racist realities are manifested in each of society’s major parts…—the economy, politics, education, religion, the family—[reflecting] the fundamental reality of systemic racism.”

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Eduardo Bonilla-Silva discussed how persistent racial inequality reflects the “continued existence of a racial structure” in society.

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 He noted that, in contrast with the Jim Crow period, the structures maintaining contemporary racial oppression “are increasingly covert, are embedded in normal operations of institutions, avoid direct racial terminology, and are invisible to most Whites.”

 

Examples Of Structural And Systemic Racism

Several examples of systemic racism are presented here. They have been selected on the basis of their importance in perpetuating racial injustice with health implications and for diversity of the sectors and systems involved. Health implications are generally discussed later.

 

Political Disempowerment

Political disenfranchisement and disempowerment through voter suppression and gerrymandering are an important historical and contemporary manifestation of systemic racism. The legal right for all men to vote was secured in 1870. During the nearly 100-year era of Jim Crow laws, however, voter suppression of Black people was maintained in many states through violent intimidation and selectively applied laws. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not eliminate requirements that continue to differentially affect people of color. Even in 2021 many states recently passed or were considering legislation disproportionately restricting the voting rights of people of color,

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 including by gerrymandering, the deliberate redrawing of electoral district boundaries to favor the political party in power. Gerrymandering makes some people’s votes count less than others’ do, depriving them of full representation.

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Segregation

Another historical and current example of systemic racism is racial residential segregation, initially created by the deliberate and explicit racism codified in Jim Crow laws. Although segregation has declined since the Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed racial discrimination in housing, the United States remains highly segregated. Racial segregation is almost always accompanied by concentrated economic disadvantage and limited opportunities for upward mobility, such as good employment options and good schools.

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 Because of segregation, African American and Latino people are more likely than White people with similar household incomes to live in neighborhoods with concentrated disadvantage, whose adverse health effects have repeatedly been demonstrated, yet most health and medical studies do not include variables representing neighborhood conditions.

 

Financial Practices

Widespread discriminatory public and private lending policies and practices are another salient instance of systemic racism and have created major obstacles to home ownership and wealth for people of color. Home ownership is the principal form of wealth for most Americans of modest means. Beginning in the 1930s bank lending guidelines from the federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation were later adopted by private banks. The guidelines explicitly used neighborhood racial and ethnic composition and income data in assessing mortgage lending risks.

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 During decades when federal loan programs greatly expanded Whites’ homeownership (and thus, wealth), non-White and low-income areas were disproportionately “redlined”—a practice whose name refers to the red shading on Home Owners’ Loan Corporation maps of neighborhoods that were deemed hazardous for lending. Racial and ethnic differences in homeownership, home values, and credit scores in formerly redlined areas persist.

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 Predatory financial services disproportionately target communities of color, adding to the obstacles to their accumulating wealth.

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 These include payday lenders and check cashing services, which typically charge excessive fees and usurious interest rates.

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 Even when mainstream banking services are available in a segregated community, people of color are often subjected to higher service costs.

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 Similar to redlining, these practices create obstacles to home ownership, starting or expanding businesses, accumulating wealth, financing college education, and generating property tax revenues to fund schools.

In addition, the dependence of public schools on local property taxes results in schools in segregated areas often being poorly resourced,

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 making it difficult for children to escape from poverty and, as a consequence, ill health as adults

[CardinalBacker]

1 hour ago, Big girl said:

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Abstract

Racism is not always conscious, explicit, or readily visible—often it is systemic and structural. Systemic and structural racism are forms of racism that are pervasively and deeply embedded in systems, laws, written or unwritten policies, and entrenched practices and beliefs that produce, condone, and perpetuate widespread unfair treatment and oppression of people of color, with adverse health consequences. Examples include residential segregation, unfair lending practices and other barriers to home ownership and accumulating wealth, schools’ dependence on local property taxes, environmental injustice, biased policing and sentencing of men and boys of color, and voter suppression policies. This article defines systemic and structural racism, using examples; explains how they damage health through many causal pathways; and suggests approaches to dismantling them. Because systemic and structural racism permeate all sectors and areas, addressing them will require mutually reinforcing actions in multiple sectors and places; acknowledging their existence is a crucial first step.

 

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When most people think about racism, they probably think of racial slurs, hate crimes, or other overtly racist actions. There are, however, other less obvious yet ultimately even more destructive forms of racism. Structural and systemic racism are often invisible—at least to those who are not its victims. This article defines structural and systemic racism, explains how they damage health, and provides illustrative examples. Although we focus on how structural and systemic racism can harm the health of people of color, they also may damage the health and well-being of a society overall

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—including the health and well-being of White people.

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Definitions

People of color is a term used to refer to African Americans, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, Latinos/Hispanics, and Native Hawaiians/other Pacific Islanders. Racism is the relegation of people of color to inferior status and treatment based on unfounded beliefs about innate inferiority, as well as unjust treatment and oppression of people of color, whether intended or not. Racism is not always conscious, intentional, or explicit—often it is systemic and structural.

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 Systemic and structural racism are forms of racism that are pervasively and deeply embedded in and throughout systems, laws, written or unwritten policies, entrenched practices, and established beliefs and attitudes that produce, condone, and perpetuate widespread unfair treatment of people of color.

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 They reflect both ongoing and historical injustices. Although systemic racism and structural racism are often used interchangeably, they have somewhat different emphases. Systemicracism emphasizes the involvement of whole systems, and often all systems—for example, political, legal, economic, health care, school, and criminal justice systems—including the structures that uphold the systems.

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Structuralracism emphasizes the role of the structures (laws, policies, institutional practices, and entrenched norms) that are the systems’ scaffolding.

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 Because systemic racism includes structural racism, for brevity we often use systemic racism to refer to both; at times we use both for emphasis. Institutional racism is sometimes used as a synonym for systemic or structural racism, as it captures the involvement of institutional systems and structures in race-based discrimination and oppression;

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 it may also refer specifically to racism within a particular institution.

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Gilbert Gee and Annie Ro depict systemic racism as the hidden base of an iceberg

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 (see illustration in online appendix exhibit 1).

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 The iceberg’s visible part represents the overt racism that manifests in blatant discrimination and hate crimes—explicitly racist treatment that may be relatively easy to recognize. The iceberg’s base—the much larger, usually unseen part—represents systemic and structural racism. It consists of the societal systems and structures that expose people of color to health-harming conditions and that impose and sustain barriers to opportunities that promote good health and well-being. The opportunities denied include access to good jobs with benefits; safe, unpolluted neighborhoods with good schools; high-quality health care; and fair treatment by the criminal justice system. Systemic racism is the iceberg’s more dangerous part: It places people of color at a disadvantage in multiple domains affecting health in ways often more difficult to recognize than explicit interpersonal racism.

Systemic racism is so embedded in systems that it often is assumed to reflect the natural, inevitable order of things.

Systemic racism is so embedded in systems that it often is assumed to reflect the natural, inevitable order of things. Slavery—explicitly supported by laws—endured for 250 years in the United States and was followed by almost 100 years of Jim Crow laws—often enforced by terror—that were deliberately designed to restrict the rights of African Americans, including the rights to vote, work, and get an education. Although civil rights legislation in the 1960s made it illegal to discriminate, enforcement of these antidiscrimination laws has been inadequate.

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 Racial inequities, and their ensuing socioeconomic and health consequences, persist because of deeply rooted, unfair systems that sustain the legacy of former overtly discriminatory practices, policies, laws, and beliefs. At times, these systems and structures, which are rooted in beliefs in White supremacy, operate unconsciously or unintentionally, but nevertheless effectively, to produce and sustain racial discrimination. Systemic racism systematically and pervasively puts Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color at compounded disadvantage within society. It often can be traced to deliberate acts of discrimination in the past, such as laws mandating residential segregation by race. Once in place, however, systemic racism is often self-perpetuating, with persistently damaging effects on health even after the explicitly discriminatory measures are no longer in effect.

The terms systemic, structural, and institutional racism, or closely related concepts, were first used by social scientists. Sociologist David Williams

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 and others

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^,

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 have traced the key concepts back to the distinguished social scientist W. E. B. Du Bois, who wrote (around 1900) about how racial discrimination was institutionalized within multiple sectors of society and was self-perpetuating.

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 Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton noted the institutionalization of racial discrimination “within large sectors of the American society, including the labor market, the educational system, and the welfare bureaucracy…and racial segregation.”

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Joe Feagin and Kimberley Ducey wrote: “Systemic racism includes the complex array of antiblack practices, the unjustly-gained political-economic power of whites, the continuing economic and other resource inequalities along racial lines, and the white racist attitudes created to maintain and rationalize white privilege and power. Systemic here means that the core racist realities are manifested in each of society’s major parts…—the economy, politics, education, religion, the family—[reflecting] the fundamental reality of systemic racism.”

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Eduardo Bonilla-Silva discussed how persistent racial inequality reflects the “continued existence of a racial structure” in society.

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 He noted that, in contrast with the Jim Crow period, the structures maintaining contemporary racial oppression “are increasingly covert, are embedded in normal operations of institutions, avoid direct racial terminology, and are invisible to most Whites.”

 

Examples Of Structural And Systemic Racism

Several examples of systemic racism are presented here. They have been selected on the basis of their importance in perpetuating racial injustice with health implications and for diversity of the sectors and systems involved. Health implications are generally discussed later.

 

Political Disempowerment

Political disenfranchisement and disempowerment through voter suppression and gerrymandering are an important historical and contemporary manifestation of systemic racism. The legal right for all men to vote was secured in 1870. During the nearly 100-year era of Jim Crow laws, however, voter suppression of Black people was maintained in many states through violent intimidation and selectively applied laws. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not eliminate requirements that continue to differentially affect people of color. Even in 2021 many states recently passed or were considering legislation disproportionately restricting the voting rights of people of color,

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 including by gerrymandering, the deliberate redrawing of electoral district boundaries to favor the political party in power. Gerrymandering makes some people’s votes count less than others’ do, depriving them of full representation.

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Segregation

Another historical and current example of systemic racism is racial residential segregation, initially created by the deliberate and explicit racism codified in Jim Crow laws. Although segregation has declined since the Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed racial discrimination in housing, the United States remains highly segregated. Racial segregation is almost always accompanied by concentrated economic disadvantage and limited opportunities for upward mobility, such as good employment options and good schools.

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 Because of segregation, African American and Latino people are more likely than White people with similar household incomes to live in neighborhoods with concentrated disadvantage, whose adverse health effects have repeatedly been demonstrated, yet most health and medical studies do not include variables representing neighborhood conditions.

 

Financial Practices

Widespread discriminatory public and private lending policies and practices are another salient instance of systemic racism and have created major obstacles to home ownership and wealth for people of color. Home ownership is the principal form of wealth for most Americans of modest means. Beginning in the 1930s bank lending guidelines from the federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation were later adopted by private banks. The guidelines explicitly used neighborhood racial and ethnic composition and income data in assessing mortgage lending risks.

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 During decades when federal loan programs greatly expanded Whites’ homeownership (and thus, wealth), non-White and low-income areas were disproportionately “redlined”—a practice whose name refers to the red shading on Home Owners’ Loan Corporation maps of neighborhoods that were deemed hazardous for lending. Racial and ethnic differences in homeownership, home values, and credit scores in formerly redlined areas persist.

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 Predatory financial services disproportionately target communities of color, adding to the obstacles to their accumulating wealth.

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 These include payday lenders and check cashing services, which typically charge excessive fees and usurious interest rates.

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 Even when mainstream banking services are available in a segregated community, people of color are often subjected to higher service costs.

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 Similar to redlining, these practices create obstacles to home ownership, starting or expanding businesses, accumulating wealth, financing college education, and generating property tax revenues to fund schools.

In addition, the dependence of public schools on local property taxes results in schools in segregated areas often being poorly resourced,

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 making it difficult for children to escape from poverty and, as a consequence, ill health as adults

Here's the problem... .those are a lot of theories about "racism,' but not actual policies that negatively affect black people.  For example... "the fact that there are more blacks in prison than whites PROVES that the criminal justice system is racist."  Except it doesn't.  Over 50% of the murders in the US are committed by black people... who only make up 13% of the population.  So the fact that more black people are in prison for murder does NOT reflect "systemic racism."  

It's no secret that black people like to spend their money differently than white people as a general rule.  Flashy clothes, expensive cars...  You've heard the term- they called it living _______ rich.  You know, you've heard it.   But if I chose to blow my money on clothes, cars, hairdos, nails, chains, and live in a shack, it's hard to come back later and say "racism" is the reason that I don't have a house/personal wealth.  How many times have you been through the McDonald's drive thru and been proud to see a young black woman standing there doing a job that I wouldn't want? Good for her!  I'm freaking proud- but then you realize that she's having trouble pushing the keys because of her salon nails and that hairdo wasn't cheap.  It's deflating to me personally.  She can't afford to do those things, practically speaking... She's not going to get ahead with that McJob, and she dang sure can't if she's blowing her cash on stuff like that.  I don't know how much tattoos cost in the hood, but I can't afford that kind of work over here at Flippers, but most black kids somehow find a way to get tatted up. That's cool, but you can't complain if my kid has more cash (but less tattoos) than you. 

In the 90s the federal government made it possible for disadvantaged people to buy homes with little or no money down... it was a focused effort to increase the rates of home ownership in the black community.  However, these were non-traditional loans made to people who wouldn't have normally qualified for a home loan because of a lack of credit, down payment etc... when things went as they were easily predicted and these new homeowners started losing their homes, the program(s) were suddenly referred to as "predatory lending."  And the whole argument about "redlining" is a dog whistle.  Did it happen?  Of course.  Did it happen much?  Heck, no...  The fact that some people were wrongfully turned away from new developments in the cities has nothing to do with the fact that so many black families abandoned their homes for Section 8 housing or just left small town east texas for the city.  But you have to be honest... homes in black neighborhoods won't sell for what similar homes will sell for in white neighborhoods.  And that's not a racism, that's a reflection on higher crime rates, booming stereos, drug use, etc... Why should I expect to pay the same amount for a house in Groves that was built in the 1940s than I'd pay for one in Port Arthur that was built in the 1940s... except the one in PA has burglar bars installed. It costs the same amount of money to build in BC or PA... your new home in BC is just gonna be worth a whole lot more.  That's a fact.  That's the truth.  That might hurt feelings... But it's reality.  

 Is the East side of Port Arthur underserved by pharmacies?  Absolutely.  But they used to have pharmacies and most of them shut down (Gulfway/Savannah) because they couldn't stay open because of all of the shoplifting.  But the fact that they are no longer serving the community is somehow proof of racism? Not at all. 

I'll give an example of where the system is blind.  Race isn't taken into account when it comes time to get retail credit.  This is pure speculation, for the sake of a story.  Let's say that statistically speaking, black people are three times more likely to have their car repossessed than white people.  Pure math... 10 blacks, three repos.  10 whites, one repo.  The numbers don't lie.  A statistician would start to say "wait.... we need to look a little closer at these black borrowers... their loans go bad at 3x the rate of white borrowers... shouldn't those riskier loans justify a higher interest rate?" Yet our federal government (correctly) disallows the use of racial data in the purchase of homes/cars/credit cards.  But you'd look at that situation and say that the fact that three times as many blacks get their cars repossessed is proof of racism.... when the truth of the matter is that more owners of that color just happened to not pay their car notes.  That's the fallacy of your arguments. 

My honest opinion is that without any proof from you of an actual racist policy that can be corrected today, I'll still agree that there are some biases built into our systems.... Some biases that negatively affect black people.  But I also think that they account for about 2% of the reasons why the black community has struggled, yet that bias is blamed for 100% of the problems facing your community and that disingenuous and not helpful at all to mislead your community.