American Racism

*”Race” is not a static social category — for the purposes of this post, “race” refers to social categories based on skin tone and ethnicity established in the late nineteenth century.

Largely due to Western imperialism, racism in the modern sense is a global issue, complicated by social categories such as ethnicity, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, and religion, to name a few. One of the core beliefs upon which America was founded was that Black people were subhuman, worth only ⅗ of a human for the sole purpose of bolstering population numbers for more Southern states in the House of Representatives. To argue, then, that racism is not institutionalized in America, is to misunderstand the basis of social hierarchy in the Constitution.

Institutions are very simply organizations, laws, practices, and customs that are integral to the foundation of collective human life. The Constitution is an institution, as is the justice system, a court decision, and a religion. Thus, because of the statute that legally defines black people as less than human, racism is directly ingrained in the institutions of our country. 

Policing in America

Before official policing, most towns in America had night watchmen, who either volunteered to walk around town at night and watch for criminal activity, or were forced to do it as a punishment. Our policing systems were formed by the individual states and cities as the traditional night watchmen  became obsolete in larger populations. The first official, publicly funded police force in America was in Boston and established in 1838. The creation was driven by the large port and business (in short, the preservation of the local economy). The police forces in the relatively rural south, however, were formed to be slave watches. The first slave patrols actually came about before policing systems in the north, with the first in South Carolina in 1704. 

Slave patrols, while most numerous in the south due to the significantly larger enslaved population, were not limited to the south. Because enslaved peoples were legally property until the Civil War, the police in the north were also responsible for sending escapees back to their owners. Thus, from its very creation, the American police system was designed to keep the black populations “under control.”

Re-enslavement: the Convict Leasing System

After the Civil War, we are taught that slavery was over and that black Americans were lawfully equal, and only segregation kept them down. This is, however, a largely false narrative. The Thirteenth Amendment, while famous for declaring slavery illegal, provided a loophole. Section One states that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Slavery is legal in the United States, under this Amendment to our Constitution. 

Simply being convicted of a crime allowed the re-enslavement of hundreds of thousands of black people in the south, as the Jim Crow laws created almost no safe environment. Were a black man to look at a white woman in the presence of an officer, play dice in public, or fail to cede their space on the sidewalk to a white peer, they were easily thrown in jail, convicted of “loitering” or “disturbing the peace,” and sentenced to a ridiculous amount of time. Then, they were leased as property to white people who desired free labor. While this effectively enslaved black people once more, it also kept them in the lowest margin of society with fear and legal low-class status. Additionally, it is easily arguable that the convict leasing system was worse than slavery. The people leased to owners of plantations, coal mines, and steel mills (to name a few) were more often than not worked to death. As a slave prior to the Civil War, there was incentive to keep enslaved peoples alive and able to work, as they were a cost to clothe and feed. As leases, there was no expected condition of their return, as they were free and temporary, and most importantly, very easily replaceable. The despicable convict leasing system did not end until after World War II, and thus, legal, large-scale slavery did not end in the United States until the late 1940s. 

However, slavery did not even end entirely then. In the South, Jim Crow and terror, as well as a culture of white supremacy, ensured that black people were servants to the white population. Whites often worked together to ensure that families stayed under service to them, by acting as though they continued ownership. Black servants were often passed to children through wills, and solidarity made it difficult, if not impossible, for black people to find another employer once a white family staked their claim. Terror groups like the Klu Klux Klan continued to keep black people down with threats, destruction of property, and killings, and the police at the time served as another white supremacist group, only less overt, all while the government ignored or encouraged the behavior. The erection of Confederate statues and the reforming of the Confederate flag are more examples of keeping black people down. They exist so that each time the flag or a Confederate general statue is passed by black people, they are supposed to be reminded that they are inferior, even if the Confederacy lost. This overt and covert racism kept black people from voting, continued to advocate for segregation, and forced the internalization of black hatred into the culture.

Racism, as I have explained, is institutionalized in America, but it is also internalized. Racism isn’t always overt hatred and obvious discrimination–it is what the institutions, society, and even our home has taught us to believe and think. We accept it and it becomes instinct. We are all affected by this, and it has been used as a weapon against black people. For instance, growing up with the assumption that black people are lazy has been reinforced through the media and some banks’ refusal to grant them loans in fear that because they’re black, they won’t pay it back. This internalization has even extended to black children in the past. A study done in the 1940’s called the “Doll Test” revealed the low self-esteem that segregation and negative media portrayals (or lack of media portrayal at all) had on black children. Black children, aged three to seven, were shown four baby dolls, identical except for their skin color. They were asked which they preferred, and to give them characteristics. Almost all of the children preferred the white doll, assigning it positive traits, while acknowledging that they looked most like the darker dolls, responding to this in ways ranging from crying, running from the room, and even calling themselves the “n-word.” The horrifying results of the Doll Test show the effects of internalized hatred of a race, even if it was their own.

Even today, racism is internalized. If a woman walks at night and passes a black man and feels scared, why? Would she be just as scared if the man were white? If not, that’s internalized racism; the assumption that black men are more dangerous than white men, even if she doesn’t consciously come to that conclusion. Another example is the cosmetics industry. The limited shade ranges in many brands points to the assumption that black women aren’t considered as feminine as their white counterparts, when the degree of femininity expressed has absolutely nothing to do with race. Even though those makeup brands are dismissing an entire market, and it makes little to no business sense not to embrace that market, it happens.

Mass Incarceration and Racial Disparity

The War on Drugs in America was not in full force until Reagan, although it was Nixon who originally declared it. Reagan’s administration marked a shift from the criminalization of distributors, but to users and possessors. While correlation does not equate to causation by any means, the amount of drug charges and the skyrocketing prison population were no coincidence. 

While the U.S. has only 5% of the total global population, we house 21% of the world’s prison population. Additionally, while black people make up around 12% of the total U.S. population, they account for 34% of the prison population. In fact, black people, women and men are 2 and 5 times more likely to be incarcerated than their white counterparts. In regard to drug charges, between 1980 and 2015, the total prison population rose from around 500,000 to over 2.3 million, because more behaviors were criminalized. Black people arrested on drug charges are also more likely to be incarcerated. In fact, although black and white people use illicit drugs at similar rates, black people are six times more likely to be incarcerated for it. 12% of drug users are black–but 29% of people arrested on drug charges are black and 33% of people incarcerated for drug use, possession, or distribution are black. 

Additionally, in 2019, 370 white people were killed by police, while there were 235 black people killed. Given the fact that around 70% of the U.S. population is white, and black people make up only 12%, these numbers are appallingly disproportionate. Police brutality and failure of the criminal justice system in general affect the black population much more than the total population.

However, this raises a question. Why, if the U.S. is supposedly no longer racist and the system is not broken, or at the very least in dire need of updating, are black people so mistreated and most often victims?

Broken Window Policing

The answer to this question dates back to America’s formation. As I explained previously, racism was written into our country’s foundation, and one result of this is the internalized racism we have today. By this, I mean racial profiling. Most white people would be more nervous to see a black man walking down the street than a white man, although the chances that either have bad intentions is the same. Black people are more likely to be arrested because we have been convinced over the centuries that they are more prone to criminal behaviors, which, simply put, is utterly and entirely false. 

First, black people are disproportionately lower in socio-economic status than whites because the system has failed them and their ancestors time and again by assuming their lesser status is inevitable.

Second, this assumption leads to the over-policing of black populations and poorer neighborhoods. This phenomenon has been backed by a criminal theory called “broken-window policing.” The idea behind this is that a broken window is a signal of general neglect, which by itself is not a major problem, but can lead to many more serious issues. Thus, maintaining order would be best achieved by policing low-level crimes, to prevent serious crimes from occurring. However, this was taken by police forces a bit more literally and broadly. This is another explanation for mass incarceration in the 1980’s: after the release of the original article describing this theory in 1982, arrests for misdemeanors skyrocketed, while felony charges declined- although felonies themselves continued.

More black people were arrested and incarcerated on misdemeanors than white people, although the crime rate between the races is not all that different. Many people assume that because black people are over-represented in prisons they commit more crimes, but this assumption is false. A combination of institutionalized and internalized racism, and the over-policing of black neighborhoods and people are what explain why black people are so over-represented in prison. They are not more likely to commit crimes. They are not inherently prone to criminal activity, nor do they actually commit more crimes. They are simply over-policed and expected to commit more crimes, so they are caught and imprisoned more often.

Conclusion

Slavery ended in the United States only recently (even a century and a half is not long in human history), and there is no one year that we can point to and definitively mark the end. Our institutions, criminal justice, voting system, and more were all created around the assumption that black people are a less human, more violent race. This is not something you have to look hard to see. It is written into the Constitution, into our history, and our present. The only way to change this is to acknowledge it, for without accepting that there is a problem, it cannot be fixed. Racism is rampant, whether it is overtly expressed in the hatred of black people or it is internalized in the fear and distrust of black people. Equality and justice are not given to black people as it is given to white people. Black people automatically begin many steps lower than whites, because of the social and institutional racism that prevents them the same opportunities, leniencies, and resources. Black people are not treated equally by the system, nor by many individuals, whether we are aware of it or not.

Racism exists and has prospered. If we cannot see this in the numbers and laws, we are not accepting the fact that there are problems to be addressed. If we choose to be ignorant even with information presented to us, we become part of the problem. Choose to accept the problem exists. Advocate for change. White privilege exists: it does not mean that white people are automatically privileged, but rather, that white people have an advantage in society. It does not mean that white people don’t have to work hard, but that black people have to work that much harder to get to the same result. It does not mean that every white life is easy, but that race is not making that life more difficult.

All lives matter, but not all lives are under constant threat in America. This is why we say black lives matter; because other lives already matter more. We are fighting for racial equality to this day in America, and unless we acknowledge that, we will always be fighting.

Further Reading and Watching

Slavery By Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon

Netflix subscribers! If you have the time, Netflix has put together a collection of films and series about being black in America. It is an easy way to learn more about black people’s history in America and the problems they continue to face.