The narrative is keeping them down, not because it is an accurate story, but because it appeals to the idea that they are perpetual victims of racism.
Except that black people are victims of racism.
Racism is entrenched. Perhaps as a white person, you have not experienced it. But people who experience it know what they are experiencing.
So you'll excuse me for questioning why you are so set on demanding that what we experience is not racism.
When you go to rent a house, and they deny you the chance to rent said house because of your ethnicity, that is racism and bigotry. When you apply for a job and because your name sounds 'black', you are denied even a look in for that position, that is racism. When you go to a store, the the store clerks refuse to serve you or ignore you because you are not white or fit into a specific stereotype that store clerk may have about people, that is racism. When you are driving a nice car and the police pull you over because they do not believe that someone of your ethnicity or who looks like you do can afford the expensive car, that type of stereotyping is racism. When banks deny minorities loans to buy houses, because of their ethnicity, that is racism. A vivid example of institutional racism
within the banking sector in the US:
The long outlawed practice of redlining (in which banks choke off lending to minority communities) recently re-emerged as a concern for federal bank regulators in New York and Connecticut. A recent settlement with the Justice dept and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was the largest in the history of both agencies, topping $33 million in restitution for the practice from New Jersey’s largest saving bank. The bank had been accused of steering clear of minority neighborhoods and favoring white suburban borrowers in granting loans and mortgages, finding that of the approximately 1900 mortgages made in 2014 only 25 went to black applicants. The banks executives denied bias, and the settlement came with adjustments to the banks business practices. This followed other successful efforts by the federal, state and city officials in 2014 to expand lending programs directed at minorities, and in some cases to force banks to pay penalties for patterns of redlining in Providence, R.I.; St. Louis, Mo.; Milwaukee, Mn.; Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y. The Justice dept also has more active redlining investigations underway,[22] officials noting to reporters recently, "redlining is not a thing of the past". It has evolved into a P.C. version, where bankers do not talk about denying loans to blacks openly. The justice dept officials noted that some banks have quietly institutionalized bias in their operations. They have moved their operations out of minority communities entirely, conversely while others have moved in to fill the void and compete for clients. Such management decisions are not the stated intent, it is left unspoken so that even the bank’s other customers are unaware that it is occurring. The effect on minority communities can be profound as home ownership, a prime source of neighborhood stability and economic mobility, can affect its vulnerability to blight and disrepair. In the 1960s and 1970s laws were passed banning the practice; its return is far less overt, and while the vast majority of banks operate legally, the practice appears to be more widespread as the investigation revealed a vast disparity in loans approved for blacks vs whites in similar situations.[23]
Studies in major cities such as Los Angeles and Baltimore show that communities of color have lower levels of access to parks and green space.[24][25] Parks are considered an environmental amenity and have social, economic, and health benefits. The public spaces allow for social interactions, increase likelihood of daily exercise in the community and improve mental health. They can also reduce the urban heat island effect, provide wildlife habitat, control floods, and reduce certain air pollutants. Minority groups have less access to decision-making processes that determine the distribution of parks.
This is what people of colour and people of non-white ethnicity face on a day to day basis throughout their lives.
Racism is entrenched in society. Our attempting to speak out about it and being faced by the likes of you, who demand that it does not exist and your wish to silence our voices because it does not fit into your personal narrative,
that is racism. When you set standards and goals for other minorities to achieve, as though you have somehow set the gold standard, while ignoring that minorities have to go through hoops to even be able to attempt to get loans, get a good education, find somewhere to live despite the blatant racism that exists that puts obstacles in our way to obtain these goals, that is racism.
You mentioned the woman you worked for, declaring she worked hard as though this was evidence that racism does not exist. You ignore the fact that she achieved business success, despite the racism that exists. And that is key to what you keep ignoring in your demands that racism does not exist.. People who succeed do so despite the racism they face. Ask your employer how difficult it was for her, as a black woman, to succeed and whether she faced any racism along the way. I am 100% sure the answer will shock you.
Do you understand that
black business owners are having to hide any trace of their ethnicity to remain afloat?
In growing his patio-installation company, Duane Draughon erased all clues to the public that he, a black man, owned the business.
That meant no photos of him or his family on his website; giving potential customers the impression the business was part of a franchise and that he was a project manager, not the owner; and recruiting a white insurance company representative to conduct job interviews in assembling his white sales team.
The covert tactics helped him to bill more than $6 million over nine years to a white clientele he perceived as racist, as he often encountered potential customers who slammed doors in his face or refused to allow him in their homes, he said.
"I never said I wasn't the owner. If asked, I would admit it. But I always said I was either the project manager or a designer," he said.
Draughon is among entrepreneurs who feel compelled to conceal the fact that their businesses are black-owned for fear they will lose patronage — either to misperceptions that the products or services are only for blacks, or to racial biases on the part of potential users.
Some entrepreneurs leave their photos out of websites and marketing materials. Others give the impression that their white employees actually own the operations.
Do you understand the reason they are forced to do this is because of the systemic racism that exists in society?
According to a 2014 Nielsen report on African-American buying habits, 55 percent of blacks with household incomes of at least $50,000 said they would buy or support a product if it was sold or supported by a person of color or minority-owned business. Only 20 percent of non-African Americans in the same income bracket felt the same. The report did not specify the answers of the remaining respondents.
When a doctor on a plane is dismissed and mocked by an air hostess after a medical emergency on board the flight saw them call for doctors on board to come forward, because she is black, when she is required to show her accreditation because they did not believe a black woman could be a doctor, while a white doctor who also responded to the call was not required to show said accreditation because he was white,
that is racism.
Just because you do not see it, does not mean it does not exist.
Just because you do not experience it, does not mean that others also do not experience it.
Your demand that our speaking out about this, or acknowledging this exists and happens is a desire to be a perpetual victim of racism is racist in and of itself.
If there is a specific government mandate or law that is designed to further hold down any racial minority, please, share it here.
During this election cycle, one has been blatantly happening around your country,
imposed by State Governments in a bid to suppress minority and in particular, the African American vote.
