Modern day systemic racism, does it exist?

[RDKirk]

Is that because they want to?

Here's a personal story: I once found myself unemployed so I hid a doctorate so that I could get a job. Yeah it paid MASSIVELY less than I was technically worth. But I did it because I needed a job.

Why do you think black people might end up with jobs that don't pay well? Is it their "culture" as so many people on here like to talk about? They just like getting paid less?

It's certainly not because we're all hiding our doctorates.

The proportion of black medical doctors to white medical doctors in the US is approximately the same today as it was 100 years ago, corrected for population proportions.

But the proportion of black professionals (college degree holders) who are medical doctors is half of what it was 100 years ago.

There are two questions to this issue. One question: Why are blacks entering college less likely to enter lucrative fields? Why are blacks who don't enter college less likely to enter the more lucrative trades?

About 35 years ago, while I was on active duty in the Air Force, I was having dinner with a young black officer who was also in the Intelligence field as I was. Now, in the Air Force, airplane pilots are at the top of the service hierarchy. If someone ever wants to become Air Force Chief of Staff, one must first become a pilot. My question to him was: "Why did you go into Intelligence rather than flight training?" His answer: He simply didn't think of it. It did not occur to him to "go for the gold."

 

[Parmallia]

It's certainly not because we're all hiding our doctorates.

The proportion of black medical doctors to white medical doctors in the US is approximately the same today as it was 100 years ago, corrected for population proportions.

But the proportion of black professionals (college degree holders) who are medical doctors is half of what it was 100 years ago.

There are two questions to this issue. One question: Why are blacks entering college less likely to enter lucrative fields? Why are blacks who don't enter college less likely to enter the more lucrative trades?

About 35 years ago, while I was on active duty in the Air Force, I was having dinner with a young black officer who was also in the Intelligence field as I was. Now, in the Air Force, airplane pilots are at the top of the service hierarchy. If someone ever wants to become Air Force Chief of Staff, one must first become a pilot. My question to him was: "Why did you go into Intelligence rather than flight training?" His answer: He simply didn't think of it. It did not occur to him to "go for the gold."

One doesn't need to "go for the gold" in order to succeed in America. The anecdote about the young intel officer is not a metric by which one can then say "the majority of black people never think to compete for anything ergo don't wind up at the top ergo don't wind up with similiar median incomes to white people" (In fact that's kind of why the use of the MEDIAN as opposed to the MEAN is important. It de-emphasises the outliers or extremes of the distribution).

There is obviously some systemic reason though that blacks wind up with less household income and less "generational wealth" (which is how many of us white folks were able to succeed). It is NOT in any way related to some black culture of "preferring lower paying jobs". There's few people on earth who do that. And that is a characteristic common across all races.

People act like opportunities are always there for everyone across the board...as if those people have NEVER applied for a job in their lives. My "dream job" eluded me. I applied hundreds upon hundreds of times. Never got an interview. And I was qualified (BS, MS, PhD) I was ready to go.

The real world is a complex mix but also includes a significant selection factor that is applied to people. Systemic racism can easily (and does) hide in that selection process. This is known. In fact it is FAR more well known than the concept that there is some black culture which "prefers" low pay.

 

[RDKirk]

One doesn't need to "go for the gold" in order to succeed in America. The anecdote about the young intel officer is not a metric by which one can then say "the majority of black people never think to compete for anything ergo don't wind up at the top ergo don't wind up with similiar median incomes to white people" (In fact that's kind of why the use of the MEDIAN as opposed to the MEAN is important. It de-emphasises the outliers or extremes of the distribution).

There is obviously some systemic reason though that blacks wind up with less household income and less "generational wealth" (which is how many of us white folks were able to succeed). It is NOT in any way related to some black culture of "preferring lower paying jobs". There's few people on earth who do that. And that is a characteristic common across all races.

People act like opportunities are always there for everyone across the board...as if those people have NEVER applied for a job in their lives. My "dream job" eluded me. I applied hundreds upon hundreds of times. Never got an interview. And I was qualified (BS, MS, PhD) I was ready to go.

The real world is a complex mix but also includes a significant selection factor that is applied to people. Systemic racism can easily (and does) hide in that selection process. This is known. In fact it is FAR more well known than the concept that there is some black culture which "prefers" low pay.

Few people on earth have been raised in 400 years of slave culture. As you are defining "systemic," culture is, indeed, a significant part of that system. That's how the slave culture was originally designed and why it was inculcated into slaves. The culture is the system.

The last good example may have been the Israelites in Egypt. To clean the slave culture out of them, God had to separate them from "bad influences" for 40 years and let the slave-encultured generation die off.

If we regard the 60s and at least the legal end of Jim Crow as the "crossing of the Red Sea" by American descendants of slavery, then we have yet for that generation to die off.

 

[IWalkAlone]

Cops are not as good as you think they are.

People are not good and cops are people. Are you saying cops are the worst people?

 

[Parmallia]

Few people on earth have been raised in 400 years of slave culture. As you are defining "systemic," culture is, indeed, a significant part of that system. That's how the slave culture was originally designed and why it was inculcated into slaves. The culture is the system.

The last good example may have been the Israelites in Egypt. To clean the slave culture out of them, God had to separate them from "bad influences" for 40 years and let the slave-encultured generation die off.

If we regard the 60s and at least the legal end of Jim Crow as the "crossing of the Red Sea" by American descendants of slavery, then we have yet for that generation to die off.

It seems racist to blame the victims. Yes America has a long standing history of slavery which has affected our society even today but to lay the blame on people who have historically lacked access to power, privilege and generational wealth is another signifier that we are far from fixing racism

 

[LockeeDeck]

People are not good and cops are people. Are you saying cops are the worst people?

If one bad apple spoils the bunch and there are no systems in place to get rid of bad apples then yes, the cops that remain would be the worst people. Did you know that cops have no whistleblower protection and cops that expose corruption are routinely harassed and fired?

 

[IWalkAlone]

it was the systems fault. No one should have to go through the courts to be eligible for basic civil rights. And Since the Supreme Court's ruling Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Wyoming and several other states have enacted laws to create loopholes allowing LGBT individuals to be fired at will.

I doubt that. Can you quote the law?

 

[IWalkAlone]

How did he do that?

He proposed investing 500 billion in black businesses and he signed a bipartisan bill restoring funding for black colleges. He did more im sure.

 

[pescador]

The answer to what keeps black people poor in 2021 is not racism, it's primarily cultural and has been for thirty years or so. But culture is largely a choice, and blacks who have chosen to step away from the slave culture do better than those who don't in proportion to how far they step away from it.

"The answer to what keeps black people poor in 2021 is not racism"? So there is no connection between skin color and racism? Seriously?

BTW, "slave culture" ended in 1865.

 

[RDKirk]

It seems racist to blame the victims. Yes America has a long standing history of slavery which has affected our society even today but to lay the blame on people who have historically lacked access to power, privilege and generational wealth is another signifier that we are far from fixing racism

We are not to blame for the instigation of our slave culture, nor are we to blame for being repressed into it for a hundred years after the Civil War.

But we are to blame for continuing within it at this point in time. The Nation of Islam was pointing that out to us a hundred years ago; Malcom X was right...which is why he spoke primarily to black people and not to white people. The level of black-on-black crime, the level of unwed motherhood...such things are endemic to a slave culture that we are bound within only by choice.

The fact that many blacks--even many inner-city blacks--choose to step away from that culture is evidence that it is a choice.

 

[RDKirk]

"The answer to what keeps black people poor in 2021 is not racism. So there is no connection between skin color and racism? Seriously?

BTW, "slave culture" ended in 1865.

No, it didn't. Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DeBois, Marcus Garvey, and Elijah Muhammad all told us that 100 years ago. Malcolm X was telling us that 50 years ago. In a more subtle way, even Martin Luther King told us that.

Slave culture continued to be impressed upon ADOS through Jim Crow up to the 80s. Only after the 80s can it be said that ADOS actually has a true choice to step away from it. But that true choice does exist for us now.

 

[IWalkAlone]

"The answer to what keeps black people poor in 2021 is not racism"? So there is no connection between skin color and racism? Seriously?

BTW, "slave culture" ended in 1865.

Its not racism. Asians make more money than whites and do less time in prison. Is that racism?

 

[IWalkAlone]

Asians do better than whites. Is it racism?

Study Finds Racial Disparity in Criminal Prosecutions (Published 2014)

 

[IWalkAlone]

Asians get more credit than whites too. Is this racism?

Credit card race, age, gender statistics -CreditCards.com

 

[rturner76]

He proposed investing 500 billion in black businesses and he signed a bipartisan bill restoring funding for black colleges. He did more im sure.

Isn't that racist. Why not 500 billion for white people too? DO you follow a racist? Did he give 500 billion to black businesses?

 

[rturner76]

I looked at this link and the examples they gave of systemic racism was how zoning laws make it more difficult for the poor to buy housing in certain areas. But that isn't racism, that's an economic issue because the same zoning laws will apply to the poor of all colors, not just blacks. An I missing something here?

yes, more blacks are poor so who do they really want to keep out?

 

[rturner76]

Asians get more credit than whites too. Is this racism?

Credit card race, age, gender statistics -CreditCards.com

Asian immigrants have more co-signers.

 

[IWalkAlone]

Isn't that racist. Why not 500 billion for white people too? DO you follow a racist? Did he give 500 billion to black businesses?

I don't know what the outcome of the proposal was. Trump is discriminating against whites? You liberals should like him then. White man bad.

 

[rturner76]

I don't know what the outcome of the proposal was. Trump is discriminating against whites? You liberals should like him then. White man bad.

If you are a racist, yeah I think you are bad

 

[IWalkAlone]

yes, more blacks are poor so who do they really want to keep out?

Asians get more credit than whites. They also make more money and do less time in prison than whites. Is that racism?