This week’s annual Juneteenth celebration brings with it a renewed opportunity to discuss the current state of racial inequality and discrimination in the U.S.
It seems odd to me that many white Americans believe racism is a thing of the past. Then again, if you take a look at the history books in our schools, it’s not all that surprising. Mentions of African American history or any other non-white history are few and far between. The consequence is that generations of students have grown up believing there is one, Eurocentric narrative in history.
For example, who learned about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in school? I know I didn’t. The chaotic two-day massacre by white supremacists left hundreds dead and thousands homeless. The mob burned and destroyed churches, schools, and businesses in the Greenwood neighborhood, commonly referred to as Black Wall Street, of Tulsa, Okla.
In the midst of our divided political climate, textbooks have come under scrutiny — and not in the way I would have hoped. Republicans in some states are forcing publishers to omit elements of our history such as any mention of the Black Lives Matter movement. Hand-picking history that aligns with political motives is a dangerous game to play.
My higher education has afforded me, among other things, the privilege of perspective. It’s something that I strive to use wisely.
One of my professors in college told my class about her experience with modern-day housing discrimination. She said she had gone to the bank to fill out an application for a loan to buy a home in a white neighborhood. She is Native American, but considers herself “white-passing,” meaning that most people assume she is white from her physical characteristics.
When filling out the loan paperwork, which asked for the race of the borrower, she disclosed to the worker, who was Black, that she was Indigenous. His response? “No, you’re white.” After getting past her initial shock and confusion, she realized what he meant: Her loan request was more likely to be denied if she was not white, at least on paper. Whether he knew this from personal experience or from working at the bank is beside the point.
She also told us about the experiences of some Black students in one of her other classes. They were discussing how frequently they were stopped by campus police and asked to show their student IDs to prove that they went to school there. The students assumed this happened to everyone, and only realized they were being stopped due to their skin color after the professor asked the rest of the class, which was full of white students, if any of them had ever been stopped.
These are not isolated incidents, but rather small glimpses into what people of color already know: Racial discrimination is alive and well in our country, and it is woven into every fiber in the fabric of our society.
The first story refers to the discriminatory practice of redlining, which was used primarily from the 1930s through 1968 (when the Fair Housing Act was introduced) to deny mortgage loans to people in neighborhoods deemed “hazardous” (the determination for which was based solely on the racial makeup of the neighborhood), and to keep minorities out of predominantly white neighborhoods.
Its effects are still felt today, as many cities and towns are still largely segregated. This may help explain why towns like Marblehead, which recorded a 91.49% white population in 2020, lack diversity.
The second incident, while no arrests were made, refers to racial profiling by police officers. In Massachusetts, Black people are incarcerated at a rate nearly eight times that of their white counterparts, according to an analysis by the Massachusetts Sentencing Commission of data from 2014.
And recently, the media has shown us the realities of police brutality, which accounted for 1,201 deaths in 2022, according to the research project Mapping Police Violence. 26% of those killings were of Black people, a disproportionate number considering only 13% of the U.S. population is Black. Of all police killings last year, only 11 officers (1%) were charged with a crime.
Today’s version of racism may often seem more subtle than the cruelty of slavery or the strict division of Jim Crow laws, but it is insidious nonetheless. It’s a sneakier form of discrimination, with its school-to-prison pipeline and its quiet redirection of homebuyers that keeps neighborhoods segregated. It seems subtle to white people, of course, but is quite visible and harmful to people of color.
But remember, nothing is set in stone. We can work to change our worldviews by acknowledging our biases and becoming aware of how they influence our thoughts, words, and actions.
While there are no simple solutions to racial inequality, in order to move forward we need to first talk about it and be willing to learn from each other. Change starts locally. Elevate the Black voices around you, and really listen to their experiences and ideas. Don’t make assumptions — just listen.
Alyssa Cantwell is The Item’s opinion editor. Her column will appear every other week.
