Racial Disparity and Systemic Racism

I have actually spent a significant amount of time researching whether there is systemic racism and what impact implicit bias plays into that. I’m currently looking at the role of implicit bias in medicine, law enforcement, and other sectors of society.

Systemic racism is often wrongly interpreted as an accusation that everyone in the system is racist. In fact, systemic racism means almost the opposite. It means that we have systems and institutions that produce racially disparate outcomes, regardless of the intentions of the people who work within them. With that in mind,I began looking at this topic after Pres Oaks talk last October. After beginning I found there was a lot more to uncover. Let me go study by study, legal case by legal case, of a portion of my research. You say look at the evidence. This is what I have found over the past 6.5 months.

First real demonstrable case studies involving housing:

Sept 24 2015: Hudson City Savings Bank settled for $33 million for avoiding mortgages with Blacks and Latinos between 2009 and 2013 

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-and-doj-order-hudson-city-savings-bank-to-pay-27-million-to-increase-mortgage-credit-access-in-communities-illegally-redlined/#:~:text=Director's%20Notebook-,CFPB%20and%20DOJ%20Order%20Hudson%20City%20Savings%20Bank%20to%20Pay,Access%20in%20Communities%20Illegally%20Redlined&text=This%20represents%20the%20largest%20redlining,to%20provide%20such%20direct%20subsidies.

Sept 10th 2015: Evans Bank settled for $825k for erasing black neighborhoods from maps used for mortgage lending. Out of 1100 mortgages from 2009-2012 only 4 were black

 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/11/business/dealbook/evans-bank-settles-new-york-redlining-lawsuit.html#:~:text=But%20a%20settlement%20on%20Thursday,for%20more%20than%20a%20year.

May 2015 Associated Bank settled for $200 million for denying mortgages to black and latino applicants 

https://www.housingwire.com/articles/34006-hud-associated-bank-redlining-settlement-is-largest-ever/

Sept 2017 Two real estate firms in Mississippi settled for steering white prospective home owners away from black neighborhoods and the inverse for black prospective homeowners.

There are multiple other pending housing cases based on racial discrimination still pending. I'd be happy to share those as well. These cases impact thousands of Americans every year.

In 2010 black farmers won a $1.25 Billion discrimination suit with the USDA for being denied or delayed on farm loans due to race.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-farmers-pigford/black-farmers-win-1-25-billion-in-discrimination-suit-idUSTRE61H5XD20100218

That is the federal government admitting culpability through that time.

Now Studies and reports of racial disparities-

A 2017 study determined that people with whiter sounding names get more callbacks on job applications

https://sociologicalscience.com/download/vol-4/september/SocSci_v4_469to489.pdf

In 2020 the military was becoming alarmed with disparities in promotion rates so went to a blind system, with no name or photo on promotions packets. The disparity began to decrease.

https://about.bgov.com/news/no-name-no-picture-military-to-reckon-with-bias-in-promotions/

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/politics/2020/09/01/military-diversity-army-shows-few-black-officers-top-leadership/3377371001/

Black and Native American mothers experience the highest rate of infant mortality

https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/infantmortality.htm#:~:text=Infant%20Mortality%20Rates%20by%20Race%20and%20Ethnicity%2C%202018,-*Source%3A%20Infant%20Mortality&text=Native%20Hawaiian%20or%20other%20Pacific,Non%2DHispanic%20white%3A%204.6https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=4&lvlid=23

There are demonstrable disparities in the use of surgical care and outcomes in America, with blacks having less access to procedures 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5995336/

Analgesic (pain prescriptions) are prescribed at a lower rate to black children for the same procedures

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20642733/

There are also severe disparities in insurance access, medication underuse,stress related diseases, life expectancy, and morality

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK425844/

Racial profiling still occurs, nationally blacks are pulled over more often than whites primarily during daylight hours,they are pulled over more often for suspicion and not traffic causes, and though are statistically less likely to have contraband are searched more often. Sen Tim Scott (GOP) testified in congress of his own experience with this phenomenon. I could include many studies from multiple jurisdictions upon request.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0858-1https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/06/18/police-still-stop-me-pass-justice-act-senator-tim-scott-column/3214395001/

White officers are more likely than black and hispanic officers to use violence in black and latino neighborhoods, but the inverse wasn't true in white neighborhoods where there was parity in use of force.

https://www.nber.org/papers/w26774

There is parity in lethal use of force. One paper stating that whites often fear using lethal force on blacks. But the sad truth is there is an absolute disparity in escalation of non lethal force on blacks and latinos.

https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/area/workshop/leo/leo16_fryer.pdfhttps://media.spokesman.com/documents/2016/05/The_Reverse_Racism_Effect.pdf

In Mississippi whites are 53% of the gang database, but only blacks have been charged under enhanced gang. This was the same jurisdiction where realtors were practicing racial profiling. charges

https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2018/mar/29/only-black-people-prosecuted-under-mississippi-gan/

When white and black men with similar records commit the same time, the black man is sentenced almost 20% larger on average.

https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2017/20171114_Demographics.pdf

Continuing with sentencing, the darkness of skin in Georgia was directly related to length of sentencing, the darker a black man's skin the longer the average sentence.

https://scholar.harvard.edu/jlhochschild/publications/skin-color-paradox-and-american-racial-order

Blacks and Latinos in New York City were more likely to be detained before trial, and are indicated to be more likely to be falsely accused and arrested.

https://scholar.harvard.edu/jlhochschild/publications/skin-color-paradox-and-american-racial-order

Black men have committed only 16% of sexual assaults on white women, but are well over 50% of exonerations

https://www.news-journal.com/news/local/stats-taken-out-of-context/article_a639759f-b43e-5f88-a190-4c53cdaa952b.html

https://time.com/wrongly-convicted/

Latinos have a 1 in 6 chance of meeting their first parole board, Whites with similar records have a 1 in 4 chance

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/04/nyregion/new-york-prisons-inmates-parole-race.html