Systemic racism is not a few bad apples. And it doesn't mean everyone is racist.
It means that we have a system that produces racially disparate outcomes regardless of the intentions of the people who work within them. And it's on us to change it.
The statistics that prove this are endless. Here are just a few:
Black drivers are almost twice as likely to be pulled over as white drivers.
Black drivers are almost four times as likely to be searched as white drivers.
Even though black drivers are less likely to be found with contraband.
Murders of white people are more likely to be solved than murders of black people.
Between 2012 and 2014 LAPD received over 1350 complaints of racial profiling. None were upheld.
A study found that “officers speak with consistently less respect toward black versus white community members.”
A study found that complaints by white citizens were about two-thirds more likely to be sustained than complaints filed by black citizens. When the complainant alleged excessive force, white complaints were sustained 7 times more often than black complaints.
Black people are about 5 times more likely to go to prison for drug possession than white people and are 12 times more likely to be wrongly convicted of drug crimes, despite data showing both races using and selling drugs at equal rates.
A 2014 ACLU survey of SWAT teams found that “dynamic entry” and paramilitary police tactics are disproportionately used against black and Latino people. Most of these raids were on people suspected of low-level drug crimes.
The majority of motorists who’ve had property confiscated by the police were non-white.
A study found that black and Hispanic residents were significantly over-represented as targets of narcotics search warrants even though searches of white suspects were more successful in recovering the targeted drugs.”
In Harris County, Texas, black people make up 20 percent of the population but comprised 62 percent of the wrongful drug convictions.
Black people comprise about 12.5 percent of drug users, but 29 percent of drug arrests.
The risk of incarceration for someone who uses drugs monthly and is black is more than seven times that of his white counterpart.
A study found that between 1990 and 2010 state prosecutors struck about 53 percent of potential black jurors vs only 26 percent of white jurors.
A study in Washington state showed that black people convicted of murder were 4.5 times as likely to get the death penalty as white people convicted of murder.
Black people are 3.5 times more likely than white people to be wrongly convicted of sexual assault and 12 times more likely to be wrongly convicted of drug crimes.
A study found that federal prosecutors were about 50 percent more likely to offer a plea bargain to white murder suspects than black murder suspects.
A 2013 study found that federal prosecutors were almost twice as likely to bring charges carrying mandatory prison sentences against black defendants as against white defendants.
A study in Wisconsin showed that white defendants were 25 percent more likely than black defendants to have their most serious charge dismissed in a plea bargain.
A study showed when black and white men commit the same crime, black men, on average, receive a 20% longer sentence.
A study of first time felons showed that black men received sentences of 270 days longer, on average, for the same crimes.
A study showed that a black student had a 31 percent greater chance of being disciplined in school than a white student.
Black students were nearly four times as likely to be suspended from school as white students.
A study of bail in five large US counties found that black people received $7000 higher bail than whites for violent crimes, $13,000 for drug crimes, and $10,000 for crimes related to public order.
A study in Miami showed that black people faced 2.2 times greater rates of arrest, 2.3 times greater rates of pretrial detention, 2.5 times greater rates of conviction, and 2.5 times greater rates of incarceration.
A study showed 1 in 4 white prisoners were released after their 1st parole hearing. For black prisoners the rate was 1 in 6.
Though more than half of the people on Mississippi’s gang registry are white, every person prosecuted under the state’s anti-gang law from 2010 to 2017 has been black.
The probability of being black, unarmed and shot by police is 3.5 times the probability of being white, unarmed and shot by police.
A study in New Orleans showed that black people are more likely to be required to pay bail, are more likely to have higher bail, are less likely to be able to afford bail, and there fore are more likely to remain incarcerated before the trial.
Though blacks make up just under 12 percent of the population in Texas, they comprise 29 percent of deaths in police custody and 27 percent of civilians shot by police since 2005.
