Im actually interested in what you have to say. I would love for someone to help me understand the whole, "systematic oppression" angle. Because I really dont get it at all.
educate me.
Do you have any familiarity with redlining? It’s been outlawed since the 60’s but some of the wealth gap between whites and minorities to this day, can be attributed to decades of unfair practices when it came to accessing reasonable home loans. The ability to buy property is a big part in helping to create generational wealth that passes down from one generation to the next.
I mean we really aren’t that far removed from civil rights act. Young adults today, their parents were kids when it was passed. We can all agree that blacks didn’t have equal rights prior to that legislation. And again, this still impacts people to this day similar because young adults today, the generation prior to them didn’t have equal opportunities. Less equal opportunities means less people had quality education, access to good jobs, equal pay, etc.
Progress has been made, but it’s slow and frankly, it takes time and more than one or two generations for communities to grow after being faced with the restrictions and inequality that clearly was happening not that long ago.
There’s also the issues with criminal justice. I used to work in the criminal justice system. The organization I worked for did research into these topics blacks are about 20% more likely to be arrested for the same crimes as committed by whites. They are also around the same percentage more likely to be convicted and on average they receive harsher sentences than whites for the same crimes. Blacks are also more likely to be wrongfully convicted than whites. The statistics bare this out.
As most of us know, prison time and having criminal records negatively impacts a persons ability to find quality work and generate wealth for themselves. If you’re 20% more likely to be arrested, convicted and then receive harsher sentences for the same
Crimes as other people. That’s going to have a trickle down affect on the entire community.
That’s what systemic oppression means. It’s oppression generated on a system level. The problem is, our systems are built with people. Therefore, our systems reflect the personal
Biases of the people that make up those systems. So that’s what people mean by systemic oppression.
That doesn’t mean every problem a minority has can be blamed on systemic oppression. Of course that’s not the case. But there are still issues that need to be worked on to continue leveling the playing field.
Progress has been made, but there’s still work to do.
