The Facts of Systemic Racism – Six minute primer

What Is Systemic Racism? –  Eight-part short video series  alludes to several of the numerous ways in which racialized disparity presents itself within institutions and society. 

Climbing the White Escalator: Short personal reflection on the specific privileges afforded to whites through the GI Bill and Homestead Act. Great read.

The Case for Reparations – “Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.”

The Policies of White Resentment – “…white resentment simply found a new target for its ire is no coincidence; white identity is often defined by its sense of being ever under attack, with the system stacked against it. That’s why Mr. Trump’s policies are not aimed at ameliorating white resentment, but deepening it.”

Structural Racism in Housing

Black Friday protestors at the Galleria mall in St. Louis, MO.

The Best Map Ever Made of America’s Racial Segregation

Where the White People Live:  How self-segregation and concentrated affluence became normal in America

Structural Racism in the Education System

Forget about ‘fixing’ black kids: What If we fixed white liberals instead? Great article on racism in public education system. “…add it all up and it’s a little weird that we progressives spend so much time talking about fixing brown people as opposed to the public institutions we’ve created for them and still control.”

Structural Racism in St. Louis

Ferguson Won’t Heal – “St. Louis has been having a conversation on race since its foundation. But there has been an element missing. The “conversation on race” that has not happened is the one in which white people listen to black people discuss their own experiences—and believe them. It is not about respectability. It is about respect.”

The Making of Ferguson – extensive report on the policies that created Ferguson. “When we blame private prejudice, suburban snobbishness, and black poverty for contemporary segregation, we not only whitewash our own history but avoid considering whether new policies might instead promote an integrated community.”

The Story of Segregation in St. Louis – from St. Louis Magazine

Structural Racism and the Criminal Justice System

Resources here in our Prisons and Policing section.

Structural Racism and the Medical System

Why Racism Is A Public Health Issue – “Structures of racism and privilege continue to put a serious toll on the African American community’s health — and contribute to the fact that black Americans are still dying younger than white Americans. ..”

Videos

Michelle Alexander in conversation: Racial justice, mass incarceration, and #BlackLivesMatter – Hour-long interview 

VIDEO:  The West was Built on Racism. It’s Time We Faced That – The myth of Europe as an enlightening force across the globe helps us to sleep at night, but is ultimately based on racism.

The Enduring Myth of Black Criminality – In this Atlantic video series, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores how mass incarceration has affected African American families.

Black Lives Matter, A Year After Ferguson: Michael Brown was killed a year ago, yet the bodies continue to pile up. Engaging short video.

The Future of Race in America – TED Talk from Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow