There’s nothing mythical about systemic racism

For those convinced that “systemic racism” is a myth, please consider:

• A study found that innocent Blacks were seven times more likely to be convicted of murder than innocent Whites, and 12 times more likely to be convicted of drug crimes.

• Another study showed that convicted Blacks received sentences that were 20% longer than Whites for the exact same crimes.

• Blacks and Whites use marijuana at comparable rates, but Blacks are four times more likely to be arrested.

• A 2003 study showed that identical job applications with white sounding names (e.g., Emily or Greg) received 50% more callbacks than those with Black sounding names (e.g., Lakisha or Jamal). A follow-up study last year found that the disparity had narrowed but persisted, and a separate study showed that the callback rate for Black job applicants rose from 10% to 25% when they “whitened” their resumes by altering information that revealed their ethnicity.

• There have been multiple instances of Black homeowners receiving low-ball estimates from realtors, but the appraisals increased by hundreds of thousands of dollars when they asked White friends to pretend to be the property owners. The Brookings Institution found that even when controlling for such things as education and crime, homes in Black neighborhoods were undervalued by about 23%, or $45,000 per home.

Given all of the above, it’s no wonder the median Black household net worth of $24,000 is far below the average white total of $188,000. Sure sounds systemic to me.

— Scott Paulo, Chico