Talking About Race with White People

I’ve decided to stop talking about racial issues with most white people.

This endeavor of attempting to get people to see things from your point of view is the most tiring, frustrating exercise imaginable. It’s like describing color to someone who was born blind, or using sign language to explain sound to someone who was born deaf. They have absolutely no frame of reference, so therefore the concept is completely abstract.

When someone tells me they disagree with my views on race in America today, and I ask what they disagree with, the typical answers go something like this. “Yes, racism exists, but it’s not that bad anymore and black people and white people are basically treated the same now”; to which I usually respond with statistics and studies to prove why that is false. What are some of those statistics you ask? Here they go:

• In the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about 17 million whites and 4 million African Americans reported having used an illicit drug within the last month.

• African Americans and whites use drugs at similar rates, but the imprisonment rate of African Americans for drug charges is almost 6 times that of whites.

• African Americans represent 12.5% of illicit drug users, but 29% of those arrested for drug offenses and 33% of those incarcerated in state facilities for drug offenses.

This is from https://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/.

• In the United States today approximately 12.8 million students—or 27 percent of all those in school—attend school in a district in which over 75 percent of students are non-white. In a new report, researchers at EdBuild, a non-profit that analyzes school-funding issues, calculate that these students are getting dramatically shortchanged on the school-funding front.

• The majority of racially concentrated, non-white districts are also low-income. Poor, non-white districts educate about 20 percent of American students. By contrast, while 26 percent of American students attend school in a district where more than 75 percent of students are white, only 5 percent attend school in a racially concentrated, white, poor district.

• The researchers at EdBuild calculated that racially concentrated non-white districts receive, on average, only $11,682 of funding per student, in comparison to $13,908 for racially concentrated, white districts. Collectively, this means that, as EdBuild notes, "nonwhite school districts receive $23 billion less than white districts, despite serving the same number of students."

• Gaps between racially concentrated white and non-white districts persist even among high-poverty schools. On average, nationwide, high-poverty white districts receive approximately $1,500 more per student than high-poverty non-white districts (although they still receive less funding than wealthier white districts). Additionally, even low-poverty non-white districts receive less per-student funding than high-poverty white districts.

This was from https://psmag.com/education/nonwhite-school-districts-get-23-billion-less-funding-than-white-ones.

You can read this article from the Economistexplaining the wealth gap between blacks and whites (hint, it has nothing to do with who works harder or has better morals, but more about accumulated wealth over a long period of time). You can read about the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which was the first year (on paper) black people were legally allowed to purchase homes wherever they wanted. Read about redlining here, but if you’re not gonna click it, I’ll just give you the definition:

Redlining is an unethical practice that puts services (financial and otherwise) out of reach for residents of certain areas based on race or ethnicity.

What could that be? That could be charging higher interest rates for non-white customers, relocating business from areas where non-white people live, making predominately black areas all in one voting district rather than spreading them to ensure that the voting block is limited, etc.

And lastly, the sentencing disparity. “Well why do so many black people do crimes and get arrested?” Good question. The answer is…the same reason anyone of any other group does crime. However, in the case of black and brown people:

• Blacks pay a higher "trial penalty" than comparably-situated whites;

• Whites receive a larger reduction in sentence time than blacks and Latinos for providing "substantial assistance" to the prosecution;

• Blacks and Latinos with a more serious criminal record tend to be sentenced more severely than comparably-situated whites;

• Blacks are more likely to be jailed pending trial, and therefore tend to receive harsher sentences;

• Whites are more likely to hire a private attorney than Latinos or blacks, and therefore receive a less severe sentence.

• Black defendants who victimize whites tend to receive more severe sentences than both blacks who victimize other blacks (especially acquaintances), and whites who victimize whites.

• Latinos and blacks tend to be sentenced more harshly than whites for lower-level crimes such as drug crimes and property crimes;

• However, Latinos and blacks convicted of high-level drug offenses also tend to be more harshly sentenced than similarly-situated whites.

• In the vast majority of cases, the race of the victim tends to have an effect on the sentence outcome, with white victim cases more often resulting in death sentences;

• However, in some jurisdictions, notably in the federal system, the race of the defendant also affects sentencing outcomes, with minority defendants more likely to receive a death sentence than white defendants.

This reflects literally every level of criminal “justice”. We get arrested more often, sentenced more harshly, and receive the death penalty more often than white people for the SAME CRIMES THEY COMMIT.

But when I bring ALL THESE FACTS AND NUMBERS UP, the response from most white people I talk to about these issues is “Well, I don’t know, I just don’t feel like it’s that bad anymore.” Usually followed by a shoulder shrug, and my inner voice telling me “Some things white people just won’t understand.” Sorry to break it to you so publicly white people, we still cool. But don’t talk to me about an issue I have to live with every day and I KNOW the reality of it. I would never tell a woman “Yo, it’s not that bad out here for women anymore” after she tells me about all the various types of sexual harassment she has to deal with daily. I would never tell a gay person “Hey man it’s 2019, nobody hates gay people anymore” after he’s told me about how many times people shun him simply for being himself. If I don’t live your experience, how can I tell you the reality of that experience? I can’t. And neither can you white people.

So we won’t talk about it anymore. You want my thoughts? Follow me.