What Is Systemic Racism?

This may surprise some of you but many people  describe me as "white" that's not usually how I   like to identify myself I like to be identified by  my name my name is Mr. Beat anyway poverty I would   say I have not experienced that much poverty in  my life I've been pretty lucky still growing up   my parents did live paycheck to paycheck they  had a lot of debt although they did hide this   stuff from us kids it was only later in life that  I figured it out still I had a pretty good life   I had stability I almost always felt safe my  needs were met not one but two adults always   were around who loved me and looked out after  me I even learned about some stuff growing up   I got to go to a private elementary school and  later a public middle school and high school to   get a decent education I remember learning about  American slavery and the civil rights movement in   both seventh grade grade and 11th grade learning  about legendary folks like Harriet Tubman and   Frederick Douglas Rosa Parks and of course Martin  Luther King Jr when I began applying for colleges   I learned that many folks who had a different  skin color than me apparently got scholarships   because of their skin color and this frankly  confused me this seemed like discrimination why   was a group of people getting special treatment  because of the color of their skin heck dare I   say say isn't that racist well hold up let's  get the trusty dictionary out to look up the   definition of racism racism the belief that humans  can be divided into so-called biological groups   called races and that certain races are inferior  or Superior to other races notice how the word   races is in quotes because it's a word invented  by humans to justify hierarchies to find out more   about all this I highly recommend the cicle  historians video race is a social construct   to oversimplify that video though one group  of people decided they were better than other   groups of people and to justify that they were  better they brought up genetic differences that   we see through appearance differences the most  common way they did this was dividing people up   based on the color of their skin that doesn't mean  that human variations do not exist some of us are   really tall some of us have green eyes some of us  have really hairy backs but differences in genetic   traits doesn't mean race has any biological basis  anyway what the heck was I talking about oh yeah I   was reminiscing about my past I remember being  annoyed as someone with European ancestry not   getting scholarships for having European ancestry  if others could get scholarships based on their   ancestry regardless I got over it pretty quickly  after all I was taught not to be racist to not   judge others by the color of their skin but by  the content of their character yeah that I knew   that those with lighter skin had historically had  a huge Advantage around the world not only that   in college I learned the importance of this thing  called affirmative action affirmative action AKA   positive discrimination means favoring folks  belonging to groups previously discriminated   against in the United States most of the  groups previously discriminated against   were what we today call people of color simply  put a person of color just means a nonwhite person yeah I'm not a person of color and  so beginning in the 1960s which just so   happened to be at the same time a bunch of really  important civil rights laws passed institutions   and governments began to create affirmative  action programs to help people of color have   an equal opportunity because as it turns out they  often needed special treatment to even get a fair   chance in life but freedom is not enough you do  not take a person who for years has been hobbled   by chains and liberate him bringing up to the  starting line of a race and then say you are free   to compete with all the others and still justly  believe that you have been completely fair in 2008   I remember being proud that Americans had finally  elected the first African-American president heck   I even thought that racism may just be on its way  out and then I heard of this thing called systemic   racism and I was like well crap systemic racism is  when a group of people have less opportunities not   because of individuals being racist but entire  systems being racist these systems are often   either political economic or social systems and  they're also often connected it's different from   Individual racism AKA personal racism the more  explicit form of racism in which individuals are   racist or even institutional racism in which  large and important organizations are racist   today those two forms are indeed less common than  they were in the 1960s but a lot of people deny   that systemic racism exists wait what the United  States does not have systemic racism there is no   such thing as systemic racism stop feeling guilty  it doesn't exist I think there's individual racism   but the idea that there's widespread systemic  racism does not exist there is no systemic racism   in this country Dr King eliminated that with the  voting right act the Civil Rights Act and the Fair   Housing Act systemic racism does not exist there  are no laws in America meaning the system doesn't   mean racism doesn't exist racism exists there are  people who are racist and you should do everything   you can to show them that their ideas are wrong  and that you should not be judging someone based   on their race of course but the idea that there  is systemic racism meaning that there are laws   in place that treat black people differently  or Asian people differently or white people   differently simply doesn't exist but hold on who  ever that dude with the expensive suit speaking   at Oxford was doesn't know the definition of  systemic racism remember the definition of   systemic racism is when a group of people has  less opportunities due to entire systems being   racist it's not laws in place that treat black  people differently or Asian people differently   or white people differently no no no the laws are  pretty much fine again we mostly fixed all that   back in the 1960s at least in the United States  it's the enforcement of the law see that's an   example of how the criminal justice system has  been racist systemic racism that that charge is   a ruse and it's to say everything in our country  is infected every institution every system from   the top to the bottom from the beginning to the  end it's all infected everything in our country   is infected I am making this video because a lot  of people still deny that systemic racism exists   and it's almost always because they don't even  understand the definition of systemic racism   it's like not believing the Tooth Fairy is real  and then describing the Tooth Fairy as a giant   bunny who delivers eggs on Easter unfortunately  systemic racism is indeed real and and to prove   it I'm going to give you the most common examples  of it but first this video was sponsored once   again by ground news a website an app created by  a former NASA engineer to help you get an easy   datadriven objective way to read the news every  story comes with a quick visual breakdown of the   political bias factuality and ownership of the  sources reporting huh all backed by ratings from   three Independent News monitor ing organizations  here's an example the Jeffrey Epstein unsal   document story ground news summarizes what lots  of different media Outlets are saying about it   from all sides of the political Spectrum it's all  in one place nice you can see that of the 46 News   sources covering the story five lean to the left  eight lean to the right and 27 are in the center   75% of the sources have high factuality but just  10% of the sources are independent news which   means they are sources free from both government  and corporate influence but my favorite part is   the blind spot feed which shows you which  stories have been underreported by either   side of the political Spectrum I appreciate this  because it quickly reveals Echo Chambers as I've   said many times before on this channel ground  news has dramatically helped me navigate the   media landscape and I highly encourage all of you  to try it out as well I have a link I have a link   there it is on the screen right now if you use  that link you'll get 30% off of ground news's all   access Vantage subscription clicking the link  in the description of this video help support   an independent news platform helping to make the  media landscape more transparent ground news baby   okay so how do we know systemic racism is real  first remember that the goal for human beings   is to survive and reproduce this is more likely  to happen if our our needs are all met we always   hear about the starting line metaphor as if life  is a race to see who is the fastest you know white   people are at the starting line but often people  of color are way back behind the starting line so   they need extra help to get to the starting line  so they have a chance to win the race but that   metaphor assumes that life is a zero sum game that  only one person can win the race that's why I like   my tree metaphor better imagine an apple tree that  produces is an infinite amount of apples in this   metaphor getting those apples is the Ultimate  Prize the best thing ever the thing that will   make us happy and yeah survive and reproduce now  we can't reach those apples we have to work for   them we may have to climb that tree to get those  apples or maybe we build a ladder to reach them   the point is just like the day-to-day struggles  of life we have to work for those apples but not   all of us start from the ground some of us have to  first climb out of a hole first to even get to the   ground Sometimes some of the people on the ground  even kick dirt back in this hole on the people   down there here are six examples of systemic  racism and notice how poverty underlies all of them the Health Care system has hurt people  of color more than others people of color   are less likely to be in good health the life  expectancy for black men is more than 4 years   less than that of white men people of color  are less likely to see a doctor they are less   likely to have good health insurance or health  insurance at all during the covid-19 pandemic   covid 19id 19 people of color died from the  virus at a higher rate than whites people of   color are less likely to be vaccinated they  are less likely to get treatment for mental   illness black infants are more than two times as  likely to die as white infants Black and Hispanic   children are more than twice as likely to not  have enough food to eat than white children   black women are three to four times more likely  to die from pregnancy related causes than white women the education system has hurt people  of color more than others students of color   generally have less educational opportunities  they generally do worse on standardized tests   they are less likely to graduate from high  school or go to college when they do go to   college the colleges are lower quality black  college students owe around $7,000 more in   student loan debt than white college students  students of color have less access to advanced   classes there is evidence that non-black teachers  set lower expectations for black students they   are 54% less likely than white students to get  recommended for gifted classes schools are highly   segregated by skin color most schools where the  majority are students of color are in the inner   cities in slums because most public schools are  funded primarily through property taxes schools   where the majority are students of color are  often underfunded compared to majority white schools the employment system has hurt people of  color more than others then again a lot of this   is related to the education system people of color  are more likely to be unemployed they tend to get   less job opportunities and worse benefits in the  United States blacks earn 30% less than whites the   median household income of African-Americans is  about 1/8 that of the median household income of   whites blacks are underrepresented in high-paying  professions on average African-American   entrepreneurs get $35,000 in loans to start  a business versus the $17,000 that whites get the housing system has hurt people of  color more than others people of color are   much less likely to own a house and much  more likely to spend a higher percentage   of their income on rent they have a harder  time getting loans to buy homes when they do   get loans they tend to pay higher interest  rates the black home ownership rate is 44%   for whites it's 74% people of color generally  live in smaller homes they generally live in   less safe neighborhoods strongly related to the  fact that these neighborhoods have concentrated poverty here in the United States the political  system has hurt people of color more than others   people of color have more obstacles to voting  in 2016 one out of every 13 African-Americans   couldn't vote due to a felony conviction compared  to one out of 56 white Americans people of color   are more likely to have to wait in line to vote  they're more likely to have trouble finding   their polling location and finding a time  to vote they're less likely to have an ID to vote as I already mentioned the criminal justice  system has hurt people of color more than others   there's no evidence whatsoever that people of  color use or sell drugs at a higher rate than   whites yet they get arrested much more and then  get harsher prison sentences black males get   Federal sentences around 20% longer than white  males for the exact same crime people of color   are more likely to get stopped and frisked  and harassed by police officers in the United   States blacks are between two to four times  more likely to be killed by police than white   people do blacks commit more crimes in the United  States well they get arrested more is all we know   keep in mind that the majority of arrests are  drug related now do blacks commit more violent   crimes according to the data yes but that data  is often insufficient and misleading also folks   conveniently leave out the fact that most of  that is due to gang violence and gang violence   is rooted in you guessed it [Music] poverty being  in poverty is perhaps the strongest predictor of   whether or not someone will commit a crime you  see desperate people often resort to desperate   measures in order to survive disparities do not  mean systemic racism disparities mean disparities   but what caused those disparities a Black married  man has the same unemployment rate as do whites uh   what is stopping a black person from going to  a college or university uh poverty the things   that you mentioned are disparities tell me how  these dispar arities are because of racism you   mentioned Mor mortgage applications it is true  that blacks are turned down at a higher rate   for mortgages than whites it's also true that  Asians are turned down less often than than   than whites how do you explain that generational  poverty caused by systemic racism again poverty   underlies all of these and yeah we must recognize  that there's a lot of white folks in poverty as   well including much of my own family this is why  I think the term White Privilege does more more   harm than good raising awareness about systemic  racism as it tends to downplay the experiences   of poor white folks in reality we could just as  easily call it wealth privilege instead of white   privilege so what caused these six examples of  systemic racism the momentum of history in the   early years of the United States millions of  African-Americans were enslaved even those who   were quote free were heavily discriminated against  many forget that Europeans and initially enslaved   Native Americans at least hundreds of thousands  were driven off their lands tens of thousands   died in wars and massacres after slavery ended  governments across the country passed laws that   treated African-Americans as second class citizens  stripping them of the same opportunities others   had meanwhile the United States government forced  Native Americans onto mainly communal reservations   individuals rarely had problem property rights  they couldn't own land this eventually made it   difficult for them to establish credit and borrow  money while the do act of 1887 let most Native   Americans own property it also gave away nearly  2third of all Native American land holy crap and   allowed Rich developers to buy most of the most  productive land not only that developers often   tricked many Native Americans into selling their  land leaving many of them homeless the do act   also Al caused many tribes to lose their culture  by shipping their children to boarding schools   oh and Native Americans couldn't vote even after  the passage of the Indian citizenship Act of 1924   whites prevented Native Americans from voting in  other sneaky ways African-Americans could vote but   they often first had to jump through some hoops to  do so they had to pay pole taxes take ridiculously   difficult tests or face intimidation from white  supremacist groups like the Klux Clan because of   this no African-Americans served in Congress  between the years 1901 to 1928 despite being   between 10 to 12% of the total population at the  time that was also the time when the majority of   Confederate statues went up by the way a pretty  horrific time to be a person of color in America   and that's also when racial violence peaked race  riots most infamously the Tulsa Race Massacre   thousands of African-Americans got lynched  typically how it went down was something bad would   happen to a white person a black person usually a  black man would get blamed a mob would kidnap the   person blamed and finally publicly execute them  if you never learned any of this in school this   is the part of the video where you probably just  need to stop and ask yourself why why was I never   taught this stuff and then there was housing  discrimination and this was a big one first of   all it's important to understand the importance  of generational wealth generational wealth is   the passing of wealth down from one generation to  the next most of it is passed down after a family   member dies in the form of an inheritance often  it's through real estate and the most common form   of real estate passed down is a house generational  wealth is also passed down in the form of support   of a child as they grow up especially with their  educational Endeavors according to one analysis by   Lending Tree it ca on average around $237,000 for  American parents to raise one child woo according   to the economist Thomas piy most wealth More than  70% of it is inherited not earned other economists   dispute how he came up with that figure but the  fact remains that probably at least half of all   wealth in the world is indeed inherited not only  that our wealth today can be traced back hundreds   of years but most African-Americans and Native  Americans only began accumulating wealth within   the past few decades I already mentioned Native  Americans struggling due to not being able to own   private property but African-Americans more  often than not also got screwed between the   Civil War and the 1980s the US federal government  gave nearly 3 million people of European ancestry   free land okay but sure African-Americans got  some of that free land land 2 heck by 1910 more   African-Americans own land than at any time before  or since yep black ownership peaked in 1910 it's   been on the decline ever since as farming declined  blacks moved to the cities where they often faced   obstacles to buying homes they were often not  allowed to live in nicer whiteson neighborhoods   one of the most famous early Suburban housing  developments left Town explicitly refused to   sell homes to quote nonwhites even the federal  government got in on the racist housing policy   during the Great Depression which at the time  caused more than half of all African-Americans   to become unemployed the United States Congress  passed two laws that made housing more affordable   to Americans But ultimately most people of color  didn't benefit from these laws not only that they   led to further segregation often pushing people  of color into public housing slums then there was   redlining see the areas on this map highlighted  and red those were the quote risky homes Banks   didn't loan money to the folks in those homes  insurance companies charged ridiculously high   interest rates to the folks in those homes the  folks in those homes tended to be you guessed   it black developers used imminent domain or  the government taking private property for   public use to kick blacks out of their homes one  big example of this was the Federal Government   building interstate highways and splitting black  neighborhoods most of the laws discriminating   against African-Americans enforced racial  segregation establishing separate institutions   places and services for blacks and whites the  United States Supreme Court even upheld racial   segregation and the case plusy v Ferguson so long  as those institutions places and services were   quote separate but equal well spoiler alert they  were not 58 years later the Supreme Court redeemed   Itself by ruling that racial segregation was  quote inherently unequal in the famous decision   Brown versus the Board of Education the brown  decision was part of the much bigger Civil Rights   Movement which I mentioned earlier in addition to  desegregation the Civil Rights Movement saw laws   getting rid of all discrimination and obstacles to  voting for people of color heck there was even a   law that mostly got rid of housing discrimination  double heck all of the major reforms of the   1960s and 197s saw progress not just for  African-Americans and Native Americans but   additionally Hispanics Latinos women those with  disabilities and even homosexuals and they all   lived happily ever after except that they didn't  While most people of color have made tremendous   progress in recent decades overall they still  can't seem to escape the momentum of the past   plus while the laws and courts were mostly on the  side of people of color racists found ways around   the laws and courts to still make people of color  second class citizens the Nixon Administration   started the war on drugs for example which made  pretty much all recreational drugs except alcohol   and nicotine illegal yep including marijuana  folks caught with just marijuana often faced   serious prison time that ruined their lives the  War on Drugs disproportionately targeted people   of color the rean administration took it up a  notch ultimately leading to the United States   locking up more people than any other country  in the world rean signs the anti-drug act of   1986 which created a minimum prison sentence of  10 years for anyone found Distributing 50 g of   crack cocaine or 5,000 G of powdered cocaine why  just 50 g of cracked cocaine versus the 5,000 of   powdered cocaine well because it was mostly people  of color poor people and the slums that were the   ones doing cracked cocaine because it was cheaper  than powdered cocaine rich people were doing   powdered cocaine just as much as the poor people  were doing crack cocaine they're all doing cocaine   but you know they had to get the poor people they  had to put the poor people and the people of color   in prison people of color often served much longer  prisons es than 10 years for having drugs people   were sent to life in prison for wait for it just  marijuana possession life in prison firsttime   offenders even began getting maximum sentences  for drugs because so many people of color had   been arrested for drugs after this police tended  to hang out in slums where people of color lived   actively seeking out nonviolent people to arrest  them for drugs as usually it was easier to arrest   them than arresting someone you know violent  they implemented stop and frisk policies all   of this created even more negative stereotypes  of people of color in the media particularly   black men racists have also been successful at  voter suppression which mostly hurts lowincome   folks which uh yeah mostly hurts people of color  racial gerrymandering or manipulating districts   to weaken the black vote became more common as  did on doing voter registrations and making it   more difficult to register to vote people of  color would often show up to vote and find out   that they were no longer registered to vote  and then sent away not only that but voting   locations and times were reduced to weaken the  vote of people of color and all of this was in   the name of supposedly fighting voter fraud right  oh and all those people of color and prison for   drugs that I mentioned earlier in many cases they  couldn't vote for the rest of their lives probably   the most surprising thing I found out researching  for this video was that that de facto segregation   still exists in fact it exists a lot segregation  by skin color is worse today than it was in 1990   even though it's no longer written into laws  folks so what's the solution to overcome these   six examples of systemic racism well it begins  with recognizing systemic racism as a legitimate   problem that persists I'll admit it I used to  downplay systemic racism until I got out of my   bubble speaking of which let's get out of my  bubble right now let's take a walk down memory [Music] lane behind me is Central High School in Kansas  City Missouri according to greatschools.org test   scores here fall far below the state average  pretty much every kid that goes to school here   is in poverty back in 2010 when I couldn't find a  teaching job because of the recession I substitute   taught here and back then nearly every kid that  went to school here was in poverty too huh go figure often I was the only white guy in the  building in fact this is the first time in my   life that I remember actually experiencing racism  firsthand meaning people were racist towards me   and I remember thinking oh so that's what it's  like to be judged by the color of your skin this   sucks and it was indeed very tough to teach here  there were some good kids but there were kids who   did act out but it was only after this experience  that I felt that I truly had begun to understand   what systemic racism was all about you see the  kids that go to school here nearly all of them   people of color go here because they live here  it's not their choice now I'm at Blue Valley   West High School over in Overland Park Kansas  according to greatschools.org test scores here   are far above the state average most of the kids  who go to school here are economically well off   back in 2010 I would leave my substitute teaching  job in Kansas City Missouri and drive all the way   out here to coach tennis and guess what back  then pretty much every kid here was privileged   too and while it's more ethnically diverse today  than it used to be back in 2010 most of the kids   who went to school here happen to have the same  skin color as me I had no behavior issues here   ever in fact I had more issues with helicopter  parents so were there no behavior issues because   they're mostly white kids absolutely not and  it's actually kind of racist to assume that how   can you argue that racism is not a driving factor  in income inequality because it has nothing to do   with race and everything to do with culture yeah  that dude with a guy thinks it's culture but he's   wrong it's poverty because it has nothing to do  with race and everything to do with culture and   when you have a culture that doesn't and when and  when you know what explain to me you explain to me   why black kids aren't graduating high school  uh poverty explain to me why black kids are   shooting each other in rates significantly higher  than whites are shooting each other explain to me   why 13% of the population is responsible for 50%  of the murder explain why the why the number of   blacks black kids in prison not for innocent  reasons not for walking down the street and   getting pulled into a prison is so high yeah  nothing to do with culture explain to me why   the single motherhood rate in the black community  jumped from 20% to 70% oh that one's actually the   drug war movement has made such tremendous  all those statistics that he lists off are   symptoms not causes the root cause is poverty and  again that poverty is caused by the momentum of History how do you explain that Chinese Americans  who were victimized by racism how do you explain   that they have a higher net income uh than  do whites how do you explain that Japanese   Americans have a higher household income than do  whites how do you explain that korean-americans   have a higher net income than do whites how do  you explain Nigerian Americans have a higher   uh net income household income than do whites  I'm glad you brought that up because the vast   majority of Chinese Japanese Korean Nigerian and  Indian immigrants while we're at it all mostly   came to the the United States since the 1960s not  before it also of all people of color it's only   mostly African-Americans and Native Americans  that have faced systemic racism with regards to   property rights in the past and finally there's  the single parent household distinction 84% of   Asian-American and Pacific Islander children live  with two parents however just 58% of Hispanic   or Latino children 51% of of Native American  children and 36% of African-American children   live with two parents more often than not single  parent households in the United States are missing   a father at home and where might the fathers be  well likely they're in prison as nonviolent drug   offenders say what does that smell like can you  smell that it smells like systemic racism to me [Music] and this is why when we talk about  systemic racism in the United States we're   usually talking about either African-Americans or  Native Americans having the greatest disadvantage   compared to other groups they've been screwed  over the most throughout American history imagine   if all white folks got all of their freedoms and  property taken away for 200 years and that during   those 200 years all others viewed white folks  as inferior human beings and then one day white   folks were allowed to have freedoms again and  acquire property do you think white folks would   have an equal opportunity all of a sudden do you  think that people would just all of a sudden not   think of white folks as inferior human beings  no no they would not the momentum of history is   why a growing number of people have called for  reparations or giving money to the descendants   of people who had their freedom stripped away  from them but that's a whole another video still   the evidence is pretty clear and I know this  may sound mindblowing but if people of color   had more money then they could overcome systemic  racism you think Oprah Winfrey has to worry about   systemic racism in her day-to-day life do you  think Barack Obama has to worry about systemic   racism in his day-to-day life of course not it's  not a coincidence that many of the loudest black   voices denying the existence of systemic racism  were either born well off or lucky enough to   escape poverty in fact several experts argue that  a universal basic income could help end systemic   racism by breaking people out of the Vicious  Cycle of poverty and it's kind of sad that I   have to say this but we don't want equality of  outcome we want equal opportunity and systemic   racism is still in the year 20124 preventing that  from happening today if you are a person of color   especially born in the United States with the  data we have we can predict that it's much more   likely that you will end up living a shorter  life getting a worse education and crappier   job opportunities not being able to buy a house  getting less political representation and end   up in prison let's return to the perhaps cringy  metaphor that I brought up before there are people   in the hole who have to climb out first before  they have the same opportunities as the rest of   us systemic racism caused people of color to be  in that hole in the first place history tells us   how that hole got there and sure our laws likely  prevent new holes from forming but Dad git those   holes are still there the rest of us the people  on the ground need to stop pretending like there   isn't a hole and that there aren't people down  in it we need to stop telling the people down   in the hole to just climb out and join the rest  of us no man the people in the hole need a ladder   need a rope something to help them and just  because some do make it out of the hole and   get plenty of apples doesn't mean the hole isn't  there and doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist   that's the apple picking fallacy after all I mean  cherry picking fallacy at the very least let's   recognize that many of us were privileged enough  to not start out in the hole and we're not better   because we didn't begin life in the hole we were  freaking lucky many are poor not because they are   lazy not because they are addicted to drugs not  because they don't value education they're poor   because they can't escape the history of their  ancestors I think we should help them escape it I leaned heavily on four books researching  for this video Jonathan Kozol's classic book   Savage Inequalities The New Jim Crow by Michelle  Alexander The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein   and finally a newer one called Caste by Isabelle  Wilkerson I've linked all these books in the   description of this video I encourage you to read  these yourself research all the stuff on your own   don't just believe every word I say that all  said I've also linked all my sources in the   description of this video really looking forward  to the comments on this one thanks for watching

Channel: Mr. Beat

Views: 557,197

Keywords: systemic racism, racial justice, racism, systemic racism explained, what is systemic racism, what is systemic racism in education, why do people want reparations, structural racism explained, the black lives matter movement explained, american history of racism, systemic racism exists in the usa, the part of history you ve always skipped neoslavery, yes systemic racism is real, how to pretend systemic racism doesn't exist, ben shapiro systemic racism, Ben Shapiro, dave ruben

Id: qcKjfOhCLMQ

Length: 38min 51sec (2331 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 12 2024