What is Systemic Racism?

Today, racism continues to exist in our communities and in our parishes. Racism is what makes us see the "other" with suspicion or to attribute negative characteristics to an entire group of people. This evil manifests itself in our individual thoughts, and also in the workings of our society itself. Today's continuing inequalities in education, housing, employment, wealth and representation in leadership positions are rooted in our country's shameful history of slavery and systemic racism.

Systemic Racism

Discrimination based on race and ethnicity takes many forms. The United States has made progress in eliminating some of the institutional, legalized racial discrimination of years past such as slavery, Jim Crow laws, “separate but equal” schools and prohibitions on voting or owning land.

These hard-fought victories deserve to be remembered and celebrated. Still, these advances are incomplete. Data on social and economic welfare show disparities between many persons of color and their white counterparts.

• Unemployment rates for Africans Americans, Latinos and Native Americans are considerably higher than the national average. Growing income inequality increasingly affects minorities.

• In the United States, median wealth for white households is ten times greater than for black households, and eight times greater than for Hispanic households.

• Minority homeownership rates lag behind their white counterparts, and yet research shows that minorities face extra hurdles in getting approved for mortgages.

• African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans are disproportionately affected through every stage of the criminal justice system, despite the evidence that different racial and ethnic groups commit crimes at roughly the same rate.

The above was reprinted with permission from the USCCB.

Systemic racism affects every area of life in the United States. From incarceration rates to predatory loans and trying to solve these problems requires changes in major parts of our system.

Here is a closer look at what systemic racism is, and how we can solve it.