Within the United States, there is a generally new belief amongst white Americans that racial inequality towards blacks is no longer prevalent. CNN took a poll (Struyk 2017) and only 49% of the white population in participation said that they believed the black population faced a substantial amount of discrimination in America. In addition to their denial of the general existence of racial discrimination, the white population also had very low percentages in their belief of discrimination in the workplace and in the justice system. These Americans believe that black citizens in the US are treated equally in today’s society. Approximately 60% were even willing to say that they felt reverse racism was equally prevalent in America today with large businesses fostering diversity, as well as government-run programs like affirmative action. Despite these Americans’ beliefs however, the evidence proves otherwise. African Americans are still largely discriminated against and treated unequally in nearly every aspect. There are still very clear disparities in many areas like wealth distribution, home ownership, employment, health, and in the United States justice system. Racial inequality towards African Americans continues to be a glaring problem in the year 2018, 54 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a US labor law crafted to prohibit this discrimination that still persists today.
One of the larger disparities in terms of racial inequality in the United States is in home ownership. As Martinovich (2017) reported, about 41% of black families live in owner-occupied homes, which is nowhere near the figure for white families at 71%. This stems all the way back to FDR’s “New Deal,” in which black families were excluded from home-mortgage expansion and were forced to suffer while white families became the benefactors of the policy for years to come. In addition, according to McCargo and Strochak (2018), there are no cities among those with the largest African American populations that has a home ownership rate relatively close to that of the white population. With no outliers, the evidence is clear and staggering. The consequences of this gap include the lack of wealth in black families due to the lack of assets, the lack of access to sufficient retirement funds, and eventually declining health. Unable to support themselves later in life, African Americans are put at a severe disadvantage. Without the proper resources to make up the gap, the disparity in home ownership between whites and blacks is still large.
Similarly, African Americans are plagued by an unequal wealth distribution in the United States. According to Hanks, Soloman, and Weller (2018), blacks own one-tenth of the wealth of whites in America. In addition, the wealth gap has yet to recover from the Great Recession of 2007. Black Americans still own a similar percentage of white wealth (from 14% to 10%) since the Great Recession. One of the factors in the wealth gap is the fact that African Americans are also much more likely to experience negative income shocks, which leaves them with the potential liability of going into debt in dyer times. This is because many of their jobs are volatile (Weller 2018) or unstable and they have a high risk of being fired or being forced to work less hours. In these scenarios, they are less capable to protect themselves in times of emergency. The debt that they are at risk of facing is also much larger than the white population due to the severity. Black citizens are more likely to have student or car loans that are very costly. Additionally, African Americans are systematically prevented from lessening the gap. Even in the circumstance that a black citizen in the United States is equally educated, their white counterpart will make more money. As of 2016, the median wealth of a black home that has a college degree between the owners had only 70% of the wealth of the white home without a college degree. The data shows that blacks are fighting against factors that are ingrained in our society. They do not have the same opportunities provided to them that the white population does solely because of racial prejudices that have existed as long as there were different classified races.
Additionally, African Americans are also racially discriminated against in the American job market. As found by Bertrand and Mullainathan in their 2004 experiment with white and black-sounding names in various applicant pools, names that were obviously more white-sounding received 50% more callbacks than those who sounded like a black applicant. That means that these people weren’t even called back solely because their name suggested that they may be African American. The study shows that race is a factor in the process of getting a job in America, regardless of level of quality in resume and education. Moreover, in a similar study of discrimination in hiring by Lopez (2017), he found that “white applicants receive 36% more callbacks than equally qualified African Americans.” The study also delineates the systemic nature of the discrimination in the American job market over time. The data did not change significantly from the crack cocaine era in the 1980’s, when racism towards black Americans was extremely high. It is exceedingly difficult for an American American to have sufficient opportunity to succeed in America if they are taken out of consideration for a job solely based on their name or their appearance. This displays the prolonged nature of racial discrimination in the workforce in America. The results of the study also suggest that this job-hiring discrimination has major effects in the wealth gap and income of black citizens.
Perhaps the most controversial racial disparity in the United States is the discrimination of African Americans in the United States justice system. In prisons owned by the state, African Americans’ incarceration rate (Pettitt 2004) is over 5 times more than that of the white population. Despite the common assumption that these rates are solely based on the number of crimes committed being relatively higher among the black population, this assumption does not take into account many factors of imprisonment. Areas of low socioeconomic status, which are mainly occupied by American citizens who are racial minorities, are much more heavily policed and eventually sentenced. Also, African Americans are much more at risk of being incarcerated for drug-related incidents that are very heavily sentenced. The American justice system is aware that these crimes are more often than not committed by African American citizens, so the sentence is much longer for these crimes. Moreover, African Americans are also at risk of incarceration due to their systematic disadvantage in terms of education. Because black citizens are not given the same opportunity to get an education, they are also at a disadvantage in the face of the law. In Pettitt’s study she stated that, on average, more educated federal defendants are given lesser sentences. African American citizens in each of these instances are being targeted by the justice system and sentenced unfairly. Racial discrimination in the justice system is also evident in the events of police brutality in America, as well as racial profiling by law enforcement. In a 2016 report from the Southern Poverty Law Center, they found that in Louisiana, where black adults make up only about 30% of the population, they still accounted for just about 54% of the arrests in the state. In addition, the state also made about 1600 stops due to loud music, and a vast majority of these stops were made in predominantly African American neighborhoods. The report suggests that racial profiling is very prevalent in America and puts black citizens at a very high risk of being arrested. Similarly, in terms of police brutality, there is a very large disparity in how law enforcement uses force (Lind 2012). Despite the fact that in 2012, black citizens made up only 13% of the US population, they still accounted for 31% of police killings. Also, racial minorities made up about 63% of unarmed victims of police killings. These statistics expose the inequality in treatment of black Americans by law enforcement and their subconscious racism towards African Americans. These racial biases are further proven in studies that display white officers more rapidly firing on African American suspects in video game simulations. Because of these subconscious racial biases, black citizens are not given the same respect in the face of the law that whites are, leading to unfavorable consequences.
Although some Americans may believe that racial inequality in the United States has diminished, the truth of the matter is that is has not. In fact, in some statistical areas, like incarceration rates and racial profiling, racial inequality is as potent as it ever has been. Whether someone were to look at the discrimination in the justice system, the unequal hiring in the job market, the unequal wealth distribution in America, or the massive disparities in home ownership, it is clear that African American citizens are denied equal opportunity to whites in the US solely because of the pigment in their skin. Men and women of the African American community are still suffering the effects of the racist system of thought rooted in slavery. What is even more troubling is that the discrimination seen in America can not be eradicated quickly. The unfair treatment of black citizens in the US has persisted for hundreds of years, and without a major institutional change, it will continue for much longer.