Across the world, The United States, is know as “The Land of opportunity”. Have you ever wondered why America is synonymous with USA. When rest of the world is talking about America, they are specifically talking about the US of A. Why is that? Even though America is in fact TWO separate continents; with 23 separate countries in North America alone. Of which, alphabetically, USA is the last. USA is not even the biggest country on the continent (that credit goes to Canada by little over 1%). But it is the first and probably only country people talk about when they talk about America.
Here is my theory about it. One, it is because USA is the richest country in the world. Two, it is the beacon of Democracy across the world. It is the Country For the people, By the people and Of the people. It is the country of Hope. Any one with the will to make something of themselves will find opportunity to do so.
So in the country that is known for opportunity and prosperity, why is there a talk of oppression and racism. When all the people have equal rights, how can some be oppressed and the others be oppressor. I thought the opportunity existed for everyone. The reality is, not until one lives here, one wouldn’t really understand the history and pain people carry with them to this day.
As a GenX’er, and a (legal) immigrant, I thought, we live in a democracy and I really didn’t think there was such a thing anymore. I mean, after-all, the country chose Obama to be the president for two terms. If there were any remnants of racism, they died with Obama’s presidency. At least that’s what I thought.
Boy, was I wrong. With the recent events resulting the demise of George Floyd and many after that, and way too many before that, we can certainly agree that the Racism does exist. So the next obvious questions is, is it anecdotal or is it really systemic? is there a way to quantify that?
Small thought experiment
Think about this scenario for a minute. If you are caught doing a minor offense, let’s say distracted driving. You swerved in lane for just a second but were able to collect your self and start thanking god that nothing awful happened. Just then, you see the flashing blue lights in the rear view mirror. At this moment, What is going through your head? This could happen to any of us.
When an officer pulls you over, (s)he is making a judgement call. Are you a good person or a bad person? The outcome of that call entirely depends on Who you are?, How you dress?, How you present yourselves?, What you drive?, Previous violations?, personal biases of that one cop and a lot of other visual queues that allow each and every one of us to judge the other person in a split second. In this particular interaction, race and gender play a huge part in making that call. If you are white, chances of you getting off with a ticket or even just a warning are quite high. If you are Brown, like me, when the officer pulls you over, he realizes that you are of Asian Indian descent and might not perceive you as a threat. However, if you are Black, then the first question in both of their heads is, Am I going home safely after this interaction? Unfortunate reality is, both the parties in this interaction are concerned for their life. There are several reasons for it. Not to entirely blame the portrayal of bad guys in movies and TV Shows and those cops-chasing-bad-guys shows but they do paint a very negative image of a black person. Let’s look at an example I can relate to as a member of south Asian community. Take Apu from The Simpsons.
Apu and his legacy
How many of the south Asians would have been made fun of with “Thank you, Come again” in stereotypical “Indian” accent; even though they might be working in a highly technical position and may don’t actually have the accent. Many members of this community are usually bilingual, tri-lingual or more(like me); especially if they are first generation immigrants. A Bilingual person with French accent is somehow accepted, because they could not completely shed the French enunciation out of their English, and even seen as posh and desirable in some instances (for example see Diane Kruger’s interview with Steven Colbert). But the same understanding will not be extended to the Asian Indian community. Some of these people actually speak languages that are 3,000 years to 5,000 years old. This stereotyped Indian accent haunts many members of the south Asian community. All because few writers thought that this would be funny and “might” garner some laughs. This is a very small example of how one portrayal of a particular community member informs the general public about that community. I am sure the expected outcome was to garner some laughs with absolutely no malice. And we certainly need to be able to laugh at ourselves and acknowledge our differences and uniqueness's. These differences will become the threads in the fabric of our society. However, it can be taken to an extreme.
When its taken to the extreme
Say, if we are talking about drug dealer, what is the first image that comes to your mind. A ‘black man standing in a street corner’ comes to mind. For the few people who thought of a white guy, it is safe to assume that you were influenced by Breaking Bad. If it weren’t for that show, would you have thought of a white guy as a drug dealer? This is the result of the conditioning of the zeitgeist, particularly informed by the portrayal of a black man on the screen. You and I are making judgement calls based on our exposure to the Black man on the screen and not the real human interactions. Other fellow humans with feeling, emotions and aspirations like any other person on this planet. Just like you and me, the Black man is also in the general pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
In case of Black men, the most common portrayal is as a Thug or a poor person peddling drugs. Or a gun wielding thug with no regard for human life or property and with a certain proclivity towards violence and drugs. These portrayals usually ignore the most important fact that a lot of these men are Fathers, Students, Sons, Brothers, Husbands and more. You can read an in depth article on this subject at Media Portrayals and Black Male Outcomes (at opportunityagenda.org).
Quantifying Racism using number of Arrests
Let’s get back to quantification of Racism. We can quantify this from the outcome of the Law enforcement office to civilian interaction. The outcome of the interaction is either an arrest or not — a very binary outcome. This helps us look at the trends and gauge the bias in these interactions, that is, if there is any bias. So, let’s look at the number of arrests by race by year.
My initial hypothesis is that Racism is NOT systemic but is more anecdotal in nature. Magnified by the 24 hour news cycles. Let us see if it this will be proven right or wrong based on data.
I really do want to believe that this is true and that we are a better society than someone who oppresses a segment of population, for any reason.
Bureau of Justice Statistics maintains publicly available data about the arrests and Race by year. Here is a chart that is on the homepage of the website(in June 2020):
In 2008, for every 100,000 people, over 1,500 Black people are imprisoned. Hispanics at over 600 and Whites at about 250. The rates are coming down since then, particular for black population, which is great, but it is still quite high.
Arrests for All offenses
On the left you will see arrests of white folks and on the right you will see the arrest rates for black folks. You see that more white people were arrested than black people in general. What do you see in the two charts below? specifically, what differences do you see?
Looks like over 7 Million white people were arrested in 2014 and 2.8 million Black people were arrested in the same year. But let’s look at the same data as a function of percentage population.
Source of this data and the charts: Bureau of Justice Statistics
Let’s try looking at the same data in terms of rate of arrests for every 100,000 people. Can you spot any difference?
Now, it’s over 3,700 white people arrested versus over 8,000 black people arrested. Looks like twice the number of arrests for the same number of people.
This is for all offenses. Let’s see if this trend shows up in any particular offense. Let’s look at Disorderly conduct. A person is considered committing this offense, if that person recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally:(1) engages in fighting or in tumultuous conduct;(2) makes unreasonable noise and continues to do so after being asked to stop; or(3) disrupts a lawful assembly of persons (source: Wikipedia)
If you are white and conducting yourself in a disorderly way, the chances are you will get a warning and be sent home. But if you are a black person, the chances of you getting arrested are much higher. In 2014, for every 100,000 people about 120 white people were arrested versus 350 black people are arrested for the same offense.
These trends are quite similar with other offenses as well, like Drunkenness, DUI, Drug possessions, and Drug Sale. These are the only metrics I have seen; there is plenty more on the BJS website, if you are interested to dig in further. From what we have seen so far, we can safely say that if a Black person is caught committing the same offense, the chances of him getting arrested are much higher than if it were a white person.
These are all equally bad offenses, regardless of race of the offender. Then why do we have this kind of disparity?
We, as a society, need to reflect up on the current situation and figure out how we can make our society better for everyone who is part of it.
I do realize I am not proposing a solution. My intention is to establish the ground reality with facts and let the you become part of the solution by shining some light on the issue. I am hoping that knowing the fact that, Racism is systemic, will plant a seed in your mind and make you conscious enough to make judgement calls that are not racist in nature.
From the data, we can conclude that the Racism is in fact systemic in nature.
What next?
The questions is for us all to answer. What can we do to be part of the solution and not the problem?
