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#religion Racism has been present in American religion for a long time. As of 2001, as many as 87% of Christian churches in the United States were completely made up of only white or African-American parishioners. Early Christian slaveholders used the Bible to justify the enslavement of darker-skinned people. Elements of racist ideology have long been present in white Christianity in the United States. Source “The Doctrine of Discovery,” was foundational to the European colonization of the Americas and their presumptive claims of western expansion (termed “Manifest Destiny”). While some ask what religion has to do with American racism, attending to its conquest and colonization seriously compels us to ask a different question: Is it even possible to decouple religion from American racism? Source The relationship between white supremacist ideas and U.S. Christianity is a complex and multifaceted topic. While it is important to acknowledge that not all Christians hold or promote white supremacist beliefs, it is true that throughout history, certain individuals and groups have used Christianity to justify or support racist ideologies, including white supremacy. It is crucial, however, to recognize that this does not represent the beliefs or teachings of Christianity as a whole. Source During the civil rights era, many people in white mobs were regular churchgoers. Source Read Also: Holy Hatred: Unmasking Racism in American Religion

#whiteprivilege White privilege refers to the societal advantages and benefits that are granted to individuals solely based on their perceived or actual whiteness. It acknowledges the systemic advantages that white people often experience, which are not equally available to people of other races or ethnicities. It does not mean that every white person automatically has an easy life or that they are inherently superior to others. Instead, it recognizes that systemic racism and discrimination have historically favored and continue to favor white individuals in many aspects of life, such as education, employment, criminal justice, housing, and overall societal treatment. White privilege is not about blaming or shaming individuals for their race but rather about recognizing and understanding the structural and institutional advantages that exist within society. It highlights the unequal distribution of power, resources, and opportunities based on race. It is important to note that white privilege is a social construct and does not mean that every white person consciously or deliberately exploits these advantages. It is a broader analysis of the societal systems and structures that perpetuate racial inequalities. Acknowledging white privilege is an essential step toward dismantling systemic racism and promoting equality and justice for all individuals, regardless of their race or ethnicity. It requires recognizing and challenging the biases and prejudices that contribute to unequal treatment and creating a more inclusive and equitable society. Source Read In-depth: "Unmasking the Perks: The White Privilege Reality"

#justicesystem #police There is evidence of racial disparities at many levels of law enforcement in the United States, from traffic stops to drug-related arrests to use of force. According to a large-scale analysis of racial disparities in police stops across the United States, “police stop, and search decisions suffer from persistent racial bias”. Source Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Chicago and Milwaukee had some of the largest disparities in policing outcomes between Black and white residents. In these cities, Black residents were policed at high rates while white residents were policed at relatively low rates. Police arrested Black people at several times the rate of white people, even for offenses like drug possession which have been found to be committed at similar rates by Black and white communities. And police in these cities also killed Black people at substantially higher rates than white people, even after accounting for racial differences in arrest rates. Source Rooted in slavery, racial disparities in policing and police violence are sustained by systemic exclusion and discrimination and fueled by implicit and explicit bias. These disparities have fueled a national outcry over the disproportionate use of excessive, and often lethal, force against people of color, and galvanized demands for police reform. Source There is evidence of racial disparities at many levels of law enforcement, from traffic stops to drug-related arrests to use of force. However, the roots of those disparities aren’t always clear. Experts point to systemic problems as well as the implicit (largely unconscious) biases mentioned in the debate. Source The report shows racial inequities in law enforcement interactions, supporting concerns historically voiced by communities of color. While racial bias may contribute to inequities, other factors are relevant, including responsibilities across the type of agency and priorities for patrolling areas within a jurisdiction. Source A recent report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics on interactions between police and the public found that Black residents were more likely to be stopped by police than white or Hispanic residents, that Black and Hispanic residents were more likely to have multiple contacts with police than white residents, and that when police initiated an interaction, they were twice as likely to threaten or use force against Black and Hispanic residents than against white residents. Source Read full article: Solving racial disparities in policing

#immigration Immigration has been found to have a significant impact on African Americans in the United States. According to a study by the Center for Immigration Studies, immigration reduces labor force participation of the least-educated black men. Source Another study by Northeastern University found that immigrants are displacing young native-born men in the labor market and that the largest impact is on blacks and Hispanics. In addition, blacks are more likely to be in competition with immigrants than are whites. A 1995 study by Augustine Kposowa concluded that non-whites appear to lose jobs to immigrants and their earnings are depressed by immigrants. Source A new NBER study suggests that immigration has more far-reaching consequences than merely depressing wages and lowering employment rates of low-skilled African-American males: its effects also appear to push some would-be workers into crime and, later, into prison. Source It is important to note that not all studies agree on the impact of immigration on African Americans. Some studies suggest that immigration has a positive impact on African Americans. For example, a report by Pew Research Center found that black immigrants have contributed significantly to the growth and diversity of the overall black population in the United States. Source The authors put forward a straightforward theory: immigration causes wages and employment to fall for black workers. When this happens, some of those workers -- especially those with the lowest skills -- turn to crime to increase their income. Read

#housing Eminent domain is the power of the government to take private property for public use. The use of eminent domain has been controversial in the United States, particularly when it comes to its impact on African American communities. Eminent domain still poses barriers to Black homeownership today, contributing to the wealth gap. Often local governments justified these actions by declaring areas “blighted,” a word advocates say became synonymous with low-income, under-resourced neighborhoods. Source A study of more than 2,532 “blight” projects nationwide found that the projects displaced more than 1 million Black Americans from 1949 to 1973. Those were the years the Federal Housing Act first authorized cities to use eminent domain to clear “blighted neighborhoods,” according to the Institute for Justice. In addition, many African American communities have been displaced by highway construction projects. In some instances, the government took homes by eminent domain. It left a deep psychological scar on neighborhoods that lost homes, churches and schools. Focusing specifically on the Federal Housing Act (FHA) of 1949, Dr. Fullilove finds that “between 1949 and 1973 … 2,532 projects were carried out in 992 cities that displaced one million people, two-thirds of them African American,” making blacks “five times more likely to be displaced than they should have been given their numbers in the population.” Source Advocates for the prominent redevelopment projects of mid-century were often quite up front about their intentions to use urban renewal projects for racially discriminatory ends. As quoted in the body of this report, displacement of African-Americans and urban renewal projects were so intertwined that urban renewal was referred to as “Negro removal.” In Chicago in the 1940s, protesters claimed that the “Lake Meadows” re-development project on the near Southside was “Negro clearance” rather than “slum clearance” and said, “If it is a slum clearance program, then let’s make it that and start where the slums are.” Although their complaints delayed the project, these efforts ultimately did not stop the clearance of the area. In New York, a leading proponent of the 1940s “Stuyvesant Town” redevelopment project, Metropolitan Life Insurance Chairman Frederick Ecker, infamously defended the company’s decision to deny admission to blacks by declaring that “blacks and whites just don't mix.” One study reports that, between 1949 and 1973, government officials executed 2,532 projects in 992 cities, displacing one million people, two-thirds of whom were African American. Source Read also: Eminent domain: How it impacted Black communities U.S. freeways flattened Black neighborhoods nationwide

#politics The effects these presidential domestic programs (Federally Assisted Programs) have/had on African Americans. The benefits that were included/excluded to African Americans. And what effects these exclusions have/had on their communities. FDR - Present. Regardless of political party. The New Deal: The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Effect(s) It changed black voting: The issue was that the New Deal did not target the Black community and actively excluded African Americans. After the New Deal, African Americans began to vote Democrat instead of Republican. The New Deal programs did assist them, so switching parties was a logical choice. Source Until the New Deal, Blacks had shown their traditional loyalty to the party of Abraham Lincoln by voting overwhelmingly Republican. By the end of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first administration, however, one of the most dramatic voter shifts in American history had occurred. In 1936, some 75 percent of Black voters supported the Democrats. Source The Roosevelt administration appointed a number of black people to the federal office but did not support racial equality (for fear of losing the vote of white Southern Democrats). Therefore, blacks were still discriminated against and excluded from many New Deal programs. Local officials and contractors, particularly in the South, bent the rules to hire fewer African Americans, exclude them from skilled jobs and pay them less than Whites. Source The effects of The New Deals on AA's? Good overall but... Social Security Act of 1935: The Decision to Exclude Agricultural and Domestic Workers from the 1935 Social Security Act The Social Security Act of 1935 excluded from coverage about half the workers in the American economy. Among the excluded groups were agricultural and domestic workers—a large percentage of whom were African Americans. This has led some scholars to conclude that policymakers in 1935 deliberately excluded African Americans from the Social Security system because of prevailing racial biases during that period. The effects of The Social Security Act on AA's? Good overall but... Interstate Highway System: Eisenhower Admin. The U.S. Interstate Highway System was built from the 1950s to the early 1990s and is one of the country’s greatest public works achievements, but it came at an enormous social cost. More than 1 million people were forced from their homes, with many Black neighborhoods bulldozed and replaced with ribbons of asphalt and concrete1. Planners of the interstate highway system, which began to take shape after the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, routed some highways directly, and sometimes purposefully, through Black and brown communities. In some instances, the government took homes by eminent domain. Effect(s) When President Eisenhower created the U.S. Interstate Highway System in 1956, transportation planners tore through the nation’s urban areas with freeways that, through intention and indifference, carved up Black communities3. Instead of going through Black communities, some interstate highways encircled them in an attempt to contain and confine black residents and skirt constitutional prohibitions on racial zoning. The effects of the Interstate Highway System on AA's? Bad overall The War on Drugs: Nixon-Reagan declares ‘War on Drugs,’ October 14, 1982 The War on Drugs is a term for the actions taken and legislation enacted by the US federal government, intended to reduce or eliminate the production, distribution, and use of illicit drugs. The War on Drugs began during the Nixon administration with the goal of reducing the supply of and demand for illegal drugs, but an ulterior racial motivation has been proposed. The War on Drugs has led to controversial legislation and policies, including mandatory minimum penalties and stop-and-frisk searches, which have been suggested to be carried out disproportionately against minorities. Effect(s) The War on Drugs had a significantly much greater negative effect on blacks and Hispanics than whites, making the Drug War even more shameful for its devastating and disproportionate adverse effects on America’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged populations. Being convicted of a crime has devastating effects on the employment prospects and incomes of ex-felons and their children. The strict drug laws from the War on Drugs targeted Black offenders and aided in creating harmful stereotypes surrounding Black populations. People of color experience discrimination at every stage of the criminal legal system. The drug war has produced profoundly unequal outcomes across racial groups, manifested through racial discrimination by law enforcement and disproportionate drug war misery suffered by communities of color. The effects of the War on Drugs on AA's? Bad overall Welfare Program: FDR Welfare Reform: Clinton Administration State and local administrators of AFDC who were given latitude to determine eligibility criteria systematically excluded African Americans and Mexican Americans from welfare receipt through “suitable home clauses” and “employable mother laws,” which refused assistance to mothers who didn’t keep “proper” homes or who it was believed could get a job and become self-supporting. Some states denied assistance to mothers who had a man living in the home whether or not he provided financial support or was the father of her children. Effect(s) Clinton’s welfare reform bill was both an extension of this discourse and marked a turning point. It was similarly rooted in a culture of poverty argument, evidenced by his racially coded language of dependency and people taking advantage of the system. Clinton alluded to the fear of black street crime, drug use, crack babies, the breakdown of the family, and the drain on public dollars. His primary goal in dismantling AFDC, as he put it, was to end the “cycle of dependence” and “achieve a national welfare reform bill that will make work and responsibility the law of the land.” With support from both Democrats and Republicans, the 1996 reform was rolled out with great fanfare and promises of “ending welfare as we know it.” The aim: to reduce the number of people on welfare. The effects of the Welfare Program/Welfare Reform on AA's? 50% good, 50% bad The Peace Corps: The Peace Corps have actually been an overall positive for AA's. With employment reflecting the population of AA's in America. 13% of Peace Corps employees are Black or African American. Source The effects of The Peace Corps on AA's? Good overall No Child Left Behind Act of 2001: George W. Bush No child left behind -what it was made for -did it accomplish its goal? (NCLB) A U.S. Act of Congress that reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; it included Title I provisions applying to disadvantaged students. Effect(s) on racial and ethnic minority students The Act seeks to narrow the class and racial achievement gap in the United States by creating common expectations for all. NCLB has shown mixed success in eliminating the racial achievement gap. Although there is evidence to support the statement that test scores are improving, studies do not find evidence that racial achievement gaps have narrowed in a significant way since the legislation was enacted. In [the most disadvantaged schools] in America, even the most earnest teacher has often given up because they lack every available resource that could possibly make a difference. ... When we say all children can achieve and then not give them the additional resources ... we are creating a fantasy. On April 30, 2015, a bill was introduced to Congress to replace the No Child Left Behind Act, the Every Student Succeeds Act, which was passed by the House on December 2 and the Senate on December 9, before being signed into law by President Obama on December 10, 2015. Source The effect of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 on AA's? No difference overall American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Obama Admin. Black unemployment was nearly 5 to 6 percentage points higher than the national average in 2009 and 2010. However, the unemployment rate fell for African Americans during Obama administration. Effect(s) The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, provided for $787 billion in education, health care, infrastructure and renewable energy investments to help spur the economy. How much of that went to black communities is unknown but black unemployment did drop during the Obama administration. That decrease being because of the ARRA is anyone's guess. The effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on AA's? Good overall but it took a while... See also the effect(s) of these programs: Affirmative Action G.I. bill Federal Housing Administration Comment on how these programs and others have affected African Americans below. What other social programs have had an effect on African Americans? Good or Bad?

#politics What did Barack Obama 'do' for African Americans during his presidency? Back in 2008, during a conversation with a friend about the election, I made it clear I was for Obama. He made it clear he was for Hillary. Out of curiosity I asked him why he wasn't voting for Obama. He replied that he would not be voting for Obama because, "he is only for the black people". (My friend's Hispanic). His reply stuck with me and became a repetitive reply during other discussions with friends and strangers during that contentious 08' election. Now. Looking back. I ask myself, Did my friend have a point? Did Barack Obama only do for 'the blacks'? After some more time, I asked myself. Wait, did he do anything for 'the blacks'? What did African Americans expect Obama to do for them? What could he have done? What did his critics mean when they said he’d be 'only for the blacks'? Well, for me, as an AA, I expected him to use his presidential powers to increase equality in employment, level out the graduation rates in college education, lower the unemployment rate among African Americans, eliminate racial prejudices that plague America's justice system, and eradicate discriminatory practices in housing. A tall order, no doubt, but I didn't expect him to do all this in only four years. Not even eight! 'lol' Those were some examples of the expectations African Americans had of Obama. But did he do or at least attempt to do any of these things? The question 'did race relations improve under Obama?' has been asked, studied, then published. Source But did he do anything specifically for African Americans during his presidency? That question has not been asked, studied, then published. Until now. Did the fears come true that Obama's policies and decision making, such as immigration, would not take any other race into account? source In my opinion, Barack Obama's greatest contribution to African Americans was that he exposed the racism that his critics said was in the past. His speech on race in Philadelphia at the Constitution Center also made a big contribution toward raising awareness about the topic. Whether or not Obama felt any obligation to do anything for African Americans is another question entirely. One I've never heard him asked directly. To me, based on his policies and initiatives, affordable health care for all Americans was his primary political ambition. Not the progression toward racial equality that most AA's wanted. During the election I heard many African Americans say that they were voting for Obama simply because he's black (myself included). We felt obligated to do so and thought that Obama felt that same way towards us. That he wanted to do something for us simply because we're black. We expected him to feel obligated to make radical racial equality a primary issue during his presidency (including reparations). We expected him to right the wrongs done to African Americans by white presidents before him (take your pick), and for our needs to be his top priority. This selfishness could have been what my friend (and others) meant when he said that Obama was 'only for the black people'. But my friend, and people like him found out fairly quickly that they were wrong. For African American females Obama did a lot, according to these sources; -United State of Women Summit source -29 Powerful Black Women Who Called the Shots in the Obama Administration source -African American Women of the Obama Administration source -Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act source. But for African American men...not so much. Towards the tail end of his last term, Obama, after realizing he hadn't done much for black America -particularly black men. He put together, at the last minute, a half-hearted, token initiative called My Brother's Keeper Alliance in 2014. Since its inception, the White House has only issued a one-year progress report. In my opinion, he did this to say he did something for black men, knowing one day he'd be asked the question. That just tells me the drive was never there to begin with. I should never have assumed or expected it would be, just because he's black. In retrospect I realize Obama did teach me a very important lesson -particularly as a black man- that I need to create my own hope. My own change. And to never expect any man to do something for me, just because he's black. So, what did Barack Obama do for African Americans while he was president? He did a lot for black females. But as for black men...in the words of Smokey from Friday, "Not a damn thannng!" But that's just me. What do you think? What did Barack Obama do for African Americans? Why did other races think he would only have AA issues in mind?

#justicesystem The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. RICO was enacted by section 901(a) of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 Articles that prove racial bias in RICO Act Systemic Racial Bias and RICO's Application to Criminal Street and Prison Gangs Based on the study findings, the Article argues that this labeling may be driven by systemic racial biases that marginalize entire racial minority groups and privilege mainstream nonimmigrant White communities. These systemic biases are characterized by converging constructions of race and crime, which fuse perceptions of gang-related crime with images of racial minorities. Source Systemic Racial Bias and RICO's Application to Criminal Street and Prison Gangs Conflating racial minorities with criminal activity enables the government to rely upon denigrating racial stereotypes in order to engage in invidious practices of racial profiling and to conduct sweeping arrests of racial minorities under RICO. This conflation also shields groups of nonimmigrant White criminal offenders from being conceptualized as gangs and shields nonimmigrant White neighborhoods from the stigma of having gang problems. In practice, this may harm communities that have White gang problems by preventing the government from executing gang-specific interventions within those communities. Source Race and the Elements of the Federal RICO RICO's legislative history suggests that Congress was specifically concerned about the ability of Mafia members to infiltrate legitimate business practices and obtain economic and political power. But the KKK had similar extraordinary influence within the economic and political spheres. Many politicians and business leaders, both national and local, were affiliated with the Klan. Like the Mafia, KKK members often conducted clandestine operations and hid their affiliations with the organization from the public. Despite these parallels between the KKK and the Mafia, Congress never felt compelled to pass federal legislation to address mob violence against African Americans. Organized violence against African Americans was not considered "organized crime" in the way that we think of the term today. Source Other articles of racial bias in RICO Act click here:

#immigration Why do African immigrants tend to be more successful than African Americans given that they face the same kinds of racial discrimination? The truth is, they don't. STUDY: BLACK IMMIGRANTS EARN MORE THAN U.S.-BORN BLACKS As the ‘different flavors of black’ emerge, different economies are also emerging. The Nielsen research finds that the median household income for foreign-born blacks is 30% higher than U.S.-born blacks. “High numbers are college-educated, and not only have college degrees, but also masters, he adds. McCaskill also says that the black immigrant population in the U.S. has a higher percentage of entrepreneurs, and an increased ability to keep dollars in their own communities. blackenterprise.com Nigerians: Many Nigerian immigrants set down roots in the U.S. in the 1970s, when the Nigerian government sponsored students to study at top universities in the United Kingdom and the U.S. For decades, the American government has preferred giving visas to those deemed useful. My parents brought my family to the U.S. via a diversity visa that requires applicants to either complete high school (in a country whose secondary school completion rate was more than 47 percent in 2010) or have two years of “qualifying work experience” (again, in an economic context where almost one-third of the population is currently unemployed). Still, immigrants can come to the U.S. without much financial security. But African Americans with ancestral ties to slavery carry with them the disadvantage of being systematically denied the opportunity to accrue wealth. The intertwined effects of slavery, Jim Crow, and now mass incarceration continue to be felt today in the vicious cycle of wealth inequality. A long history of employment discrimination leads to higher unemployment rates and jobs that pay less. African Americans are less likely to be homeowners today because of historical mortgage discrimination and redlining. While African immigrants can, and certainly do, experience discrimination that harms them financially, there are advantages that come with “starting fresh” and being perceived as a model minority. jstor.org Caribbeans: Black immigrants from the Caribbean have long attained greater labor market success than African Americans. The most recent studies show that Afro Caribbeans have earnings that are approximately 16% greater than African Americans and that Afro Caribbeans are as much as 21% more likely to be employed than African Americans. thecrimson.com African Immigrants: Education Africans’ identity related more to their focus on education than their race, reflected in a higher proportion who felt intense family pressure to attend college (65%) compared to African Americans (37%) and whites (39%). Interview data confirmed previous reports in the literature that African Americans lack a sense of connection to Africans, attributed to Africans’ purported sense of superiority and disregard for African Americans’ ongoing struggle to end oppression. mdpi.com African Americans: Labor Market The author searches for patterns in the African American response to immigrants in several metropolitan areas with above-average immigrant populations, to examine whether immigration has had a negative effect of the labor market participation of African Americans. rand.org Brief Synopsis: Besides personal accountability & responsibility; Africans are sponsored by African governments to study in the USA, immigrants are more pressured by family to go to college, high number of African immigrants already have college degrees, and have two-year qualifying work experience for employment (due to visa requirements), the left-over effects of redlining in African American communities. Lack of government funding for education in minority communities (compared to white communities) culture, focus on education (more explained in article), rejection in start-up loans by banks for African American entrepreneurs, higher default on loans. Increased ability to keep dollars in their own communities. Also Read: Why some immigrant entrepreneurs thrive where African American entrepreneurs cannot

#socialmedia Object detection is used in driverless cars to detect human figures. A 2019 study by researchers from Georgia Tech found that the algorithm used to detect human figures was more likely to fail to detect people with darker skin. In this example, healthcare costs were used as a proxy for a patient’s health. In the US, Black patients have historically had challenges in accessing healthcare. As a result, Black patients’ healthcare needs were consistently minimized in comparison to healthier white patients. In 2020, Twitter users began noticing that large images which portrayed people of different races would crop out darker-skinned people and focus on lighter-skinned people. Beauty AI was the first beauty contest to be judged by AI (5, 6). In 2016 there were 60,000 applications from over 100 countries, and entrants weren’t allowed to have makeup, glasses or a beard.

#business Everyone seems to discuss a pay gap between genders but what about between races? Even when they hold management positions, black men are paid less than their white counterparts. On average, black men earned 87 cents for every dollar a white man earned. Hispanic workers had the next largest gap, earning 91 cents for every dollar earned by white men. On the other side of the earnings spectrum, Asian men typically earned $1.15 for every dollar earned by a white male worker. The study found that black men had the largest "uncontrolled pay gap" relative to white men, when comparing the average earnings of black men and white men in the U.S. Among the findings, Gruver reported: "Even as black or African-American men climb the corporate ladder, they still make less than equally qualified white men. They are the only racial/ethnic group that does not achieve pay parity with white men at some level." Source

#employment Another defining feature of racial inequality in the labor market is the significant pay disparities between black and white workers. In 2019, the typical (median) black worker earned 24.4% less per hour than the typical white worker. This is an even larger wage gap than in 1979, when it was 16.4%. Controlling for racial differences in education, experience, and the fact that black workers are more likely to live in lower-wage Southern states leaves an unexplained gap of 14.9% in 2019 (out of a total average gap of 26.5%). This is up from an unexplained gap of 8.6% in 1979 (out of a total average gap of 17.3%). Any simple or rational explanation for this disparity is further complicated by the fact that racial wage gaps among men are significantly larger than among women. Source