To have the same opportunity as the average white american in the 21st Century you must be born into privilege which gives you access to higher education, economic status, healthcare, criminal justice, employment, housing, and most importantly basic human rights. These are just a few things you are typically born with as the average white american. The average black american, on the other hand, was not privileged to economic status during the times of the economic build in the 1600s-1800s. As a matter of fact, that economy was built almost exclusively off of the slave trade that was propionate in 1600s-1800s, leaving a major lack of opportunity to build wealth in the black communities in America. This, in my opinion, is where a lot of the hardships stem from in the more progressive world. For hundreds of years and still, members of the black community, if not super fortunate, will be born with economic hardships, and that is not because of their own doing but because of the previous years of hardship the rest of the society has put on them. As a society we have to recognize, more officially, the economic suppression the black community has to deal with that is completely unmatched to those in any other race right now in America. If you completely take away the surface racism in America the Black community had such a late start in the establishment of the economy that they would still have to deal with a racist economy, aka systemic racism. Take away all of the basic racism in the world right now. You are left with people who love and support one another, yet there will still be a great absence in presence in the economy of the black community because of the oppression while the economy in America was established.
Let’s get some facts straight about the history of Black America… Slavery was officially started in 1619 in Africa when white settlers from America promised better lives in a foreign land. White Americans stole Africans from their villages and families, sometimes payed village leaders very little to take the Africans to America:
The majority of people sold to Europeans as slaves were prisoners of war, thus outsiders, and this was an acceptable fate for prisoners throughout most of the world. Africans did not identify on racial or national lines, but on very local levels and along lineage lines. They were not selling “their own,” any more than Europeans were purchasing “their own.” No “African” or “Black” identity in Africa during the slave trade, (Anderson).
Further complicating African-American-surname research is the fact that after the Civil War, former slaves didn’t always take the name of their most recent owner (or have it assigned to them by record takers). Sometimes newly freed slaves chose new surnames for themselves to separate themselves from their former owners. For instance, some selected the surnames of people they admired or considered to be important, such as U.S. presidents. This may be why “Washington,” the surname of America’s first president, was dubbed “the blackest name” in America in an Associated Press article. Ninety percent of people recorded in the 2000 census with the surname “Washington” were black, a significantly higher percentage than for any other common name, (Jr.).
Racist discriminations from natural hair styles to racial bias keep members in the black communities from fair housing options, career opportunities, and higher education. How is an average member of the black community expected to be able to afford higher education for their children when their parents founded their economic status in a state of oppression. The response to this has been to overwork and create opportunities for themselves, because members of the black communities have been denied over 400 years of growth. Only 60 years since the banishment of oppression, that is less than one generation. Health care is extremely important when it comes to preserving health and according to the current CDC statistics in the United states only 87.9% of Black and African American communities in the United States have health care coverage, while the percentage of white Americans who have health care is 93%. The percent of white persons all ages in fair or poor health is 9.5%, while African American and black persons is 13.8%. Many acts have recently taken place to make these adjustments, but
Blacks and Hispanics are less likely to have insurance coverage from a private employer, whether directly or through a spouse, and more likely to have public health insurance coverage than whites. Blacks and Hispanics are also more likely than whites to receive care in nonoptimal organizational settings (such as emergency rooms) and to lack continuity in health care. Analyses of racial and ethnic differences in access to and the use of health services between 1977 and 1996 show that the black-white gap has not narrowed over time, (Bulatao)
We still have a long way to go for the health and safety of the total public, specifically the African American and Black communities.
Economic prosperity and growth has just only started for the Black and African American population in the United States, as it was impossible to have any sort of growth just 60 years ago. Economic inequality has been defined as this:
Economic inequality is the unequal distribution of income and opportunity between different groups in society. It is a concern in almost all countries around the world and often people are trapped in poverty with little chance to climb up the social ladder. But, being born into poverty does not automatically mean you stay poor. Education, at all levels, enhancing skills, and training policies can be used alongside social assistance programs to help people out of poverty and to reduce inequality. Several countries are also now exploring whether a universal basic income could be the answer, (What).
To get out of poverty one must have the economic status for training in a field or for higher education, it is just a rabbit hole that only few families in the African American and Black communities make it out of. This is because of the system that was set up by White America when the country was founded. More and more programs are popping up to support the low income families in America, but there is still a lack of social justice within the educated demographic.
There is a very specific group of people that seem to know all the facts, but will still deny things like white privilege, but be against racism. These people are white Americans that have only been able to see things from their side of the fence, or just refuse to see the fence at all. It is easy to deny unfair systems when they are set up to privilege you,
Social scientists understand racism as a multidimensional and highly adaptive system–a system that ensures an unequal distribution of resources between racial groups. Because whites built and dominate all significant institutions, (often at the expense of and on the uncompensated labor of other groups), their interests are embedded in the foundation of U.S. society. While individual whites may be against racism, they still benefit from the distribution of resources controlled by their group (DiAngelo).
Basically many people who privilege from their skin color, have people representing them in positions of power. Skin color should not matter anymore but because it previously was in the build of the America we see today, it has to go under consideration for an equal and fair representation of the voices and perspectives among the whole country. Why can’t we talk about it? Probably becuase white people are benefiting on that system that puts down others, even tho most of us claim to be anti-racist. Growing up, many young white kids are taught to be fair and to not look upon skin color as any type of factor, and to hold great disgust for anyone we deemed to be a racist. That is why being called a racist would scare off any white person from discussing the things we need to talk about as a country that involves race. But any white person that is benefiting off of the systematic racist country we live in, and prefers it to a truly fair world, is to be a racist. Those people most commonly refuse the idea of white privilege because they are either ignorant or are openly racist. As a white person I can attest that seeing this new world as anything but fair was wrong, yet that is all I was taught growing up in the public school system. I have lived a privileged life since the day I was born, yet trained to believe I only matter as an individual, Peggy McIntosh describes it perfectly:
My schooling gave me no training in seeing myself as an oppressor, as an unfairly advantaged person, or as a participant in a damaged culture. I was taught to see myself as an individual whose moral state depended on her individual moral will. My schooling followed the pattern my colleague Elizabeth Minnich has pointed out: whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work that will allow "them" to be more like "us." (McIntosh).
The whole culture of trying to erase what has happened in the past is the worst way to go about things. Of course in a perfect society, we could erase everyone’s memory, put fair and equal systems in place along with a more accurate representation of society, and ensure nothing bad ever happens again on the scale of war and oppression. That would be totally ideal, but it will never happen. We have to remember by whom and how this system was put into place along with who is benefiting off of it.
The oppressed should not be the ones to break down the suppressing system that the white community had established in society. The ones who built it up should be the ones who tear it down. This is where you see the strength of the Black and African American communities, a lot of white individuals still hate to see, because any progress over the last 60 years is due solely to those communities coming together and standing against racism, and more importantly standing up for themselves. Many white americans dislike the real reason why almost any disadvantage to the Black and African American communities is because of slavery. This is because white Americans cannot see it present in their day to day lives, go figure. Members of the Black and African American communities have often reached extraordinary levels of power and influence despite the substantial difference in privilege. We do not live in a fair or perfect world, and we are far from it. The first step to making a difference is to inform those around you what the real issue is. This is going to take many years. For starters children should be educated more on the systematic racism that is embedded in our foundation and why it got to this point. Children should also be brought up with the notion that we as a people are still fighting against racism which can be found in everyday life. People are still denying “systematic racism” as a whole, yet our country was built on the backs of slaves and only 60 years ago the Black and African American members of our society were punished and targeted for the color of their skin.
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