Racial Inequities in America

The United States of America prides itself on its equal opportunity foundation for all, yet in many places where fairness is most important, the US is lacking. The inequities that people of color face, can be found in schools, healthcare, and most importantly neighborhoods. When one thinks of a predominantly white neighborhood, they think good schools, low crime rates, and decent living wages. But, when one thinks of a predominantly black neighborhood, they find the opposite to be true. This modern day segregation stems from outdated policies that unfairly affect people of color. This is the biggest of racial inequities, because neighborhoods provide the environment, circumstances, and the opportunities that children experience. By Being brought up in a poorer community one experiences more crime, less opportunities, and less of a quality education.  Thus, making black communities fall even more behind their more privileged counterparts. College becomes more inaccessible, employers turn the other way, and incarceration seems more inevitable.  This then starts an almost unbreakable cycle. “48 percent (of all black families) have lived in poor neighborhoods over at least two generations, compared to 7 percent of white families,” (Richard Rothstein, 2014). This is how poor black communities stay poor black communities. Racial inequities are very prevalent and in almost all walks in life. It is important we acknowledge the problem and strive for a solution. 

Finding a solution for a problem that has been embedded in our country for decades will not be easy, but is still very possible. First, we start with the policies that are already inplace from decades ago like the ones outlined in President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal or the 1949 Housing Act. Then, we educate the masses; predominantly white and black neighborhoods are not formed out of preferences and accidents. “Residential segregation is “de jure,” resulting from racially-motivated public policy,” (Richard Rothstein, 2014). De Jure segregation is defined as potentially discriminatory separation of groups of people according to government-enacted laws, in other words a loophole for modern day segregation. Everyone must know about the present day segregation going on right under our noses.  One's neighborhood has too much of an impact on a child and their future, for us to not care. We must do better for our children and end segregation once and for all.

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Written by Jadyn M. from Westmont, New Jersey