Systemic Racism

What are structural, institutional and systemic racism?
What is structural? What is institutional racism? What is systemic racism? We explain the definition and also look into examples that impact people of color including African Americans.
Jul 9, 2020 | ABC7 News Bay Area | Youtube video | (3:26)

1968 commission reveals why racism in America hasn't gone away (*Recommended)
Fifty-three years ago a government commission investigated civil unrest and racial inequality in America. The results shocked the country but mostly faded into history. Fred Harris, the last surviving member of the Kerner Commission, shares why.
May 30, 2021 | Youtube video | (8:28)

We Built This: Consequences of New Deal Era Intervention in America's Racial Geography
The contemporary American practice of homeownership was born out of government programs adopted during the New Deal. The Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC)—and later the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and GI Bill—expanded home buying opportunity, though in segregationist fashion. These programs largely excluded communities of color through mechanisms such as redlining. These policies fueled white suburbanization and black ghettoization, while laying the foundation for the racial wealth gap. This is the first paper to investigate the long-term consequences of these policies on the segregation of cities. Faber combines a full century of census data with archival data to show that cities HOLC appraised became more segregated than those it ignored. The gap emerged between 1930 and 1950 and remains significant: in 2010, the black-white dissimilarity, black isolation, and white-black information theory indices are 12, 16, and 8 points higher in appraised cities, respectively. Results are consistent across a range of robustness checks, including exploitation of imperfect implementation of appraisal guidelines and geographic spillover. The long-term impact of these policies is a reminder of the intentionality that shaped America’s racial geography, and the scale of intervention that will be required to disrupt the persistence of segregation.
Feb 26, 2020 | Watson Institute at Brown University | Youtube video | (1:23:12)

The future of race and inequality in the United States
The inaugural conversation of the NYU School of Law Center on Race, Inequity and the Law.
Feb 27, 2017 | Youtube video | (1:59:06)

Toxic inequality: How America’s Racial Wealth Gap Threatens Our Future
The Aspen Institute’s 2017 Summit on Inequality and Opportunity
Apr 3, 2017 | Youtube Video | (41:56)

How Structural Racism Works
Professor Patricia Rose, Director of Brown University"s Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, delivers the inaugural Provost Lecture Series
Dec 14 2015 | Brown University | Youtube Video | (1:01:19)

Criminalizing Race: Racial Disparities in Plea-Bargaining
Carlos Berdejó, Professor of Law and J. Howard Ziemann Fellow, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.
April 26, 2018 | Boston College Law Review (PDF)

A Conversation About the New York Times 1619 Project
The 54th Carlos Kelly McClatchy Symposium in August 2019 the New York Times published the 1619 Project, an examination of how slavery shaped and continues to influence the course of US history. New York Times correspondent Nikole Hannah-Jones created the project, and writer Kiese Laymon contributed a short story to it. Michael Bolden, Managing Director of the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford, will moderate a discussion with these writers about the origins and impacts of the 1619 Project.
Feb 11, 2020 | Stanford University | Youtube video | (1:27:01)

The Tulsa Race Massacre: Why We Don't Understand Racism
Is American history fact or fiction? Much of what we learn in school is wrong, because it is told from the white male perspective. Journalist Elaine Appleton Grant tells the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, and how learning about the conspiracy of silence around this tragedy transformed the most important relationship in her life -- and why exposing the untold stories about race in America has the power to heal our personal relationships, our communities and our divided nation.
Jan 8, 2020 | Elaine A. Grant | TEDxCherryCreekWomen | (13:50)

Let's get to the root of racial injustice
In this inspiring and powerful talk, Megan Francis traces the root causes of our current racial climate to their core causes, debunking common misconceptions and calling out "fix-all" cures to a complex social problem. Megan Ming Francis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington where she specializes in the study of American politics, race, and the development of constitutional law.
Mar 21, 2016 | Megan Ming Francis | TEDxRainier | (19:37)

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow Jul 15, 2016 | PBS 4-Episode Series

Black Codes
Professor Eric Foner of Columbia University discusses the Black Codes, which were written by white southerners to force blacks to keep working on plantations.
May 1, 1010 | Youtube video | (2:17)

Reconstruction - black codes 14th wques
Oct 26, 2012 | Youtube video | 10:31)

Jim Crow of the North - Full-Length Documentary
Roots of racial disparities are seen through a new lens in this film that explores the origins of housing segregation in the Minneapolis area. But the story also illustrates how African-American families and leaders resisted this insidious practice, and how Black people built community — within and despite — the red lines that these restrictive covenants created.
Feb 25, 2019 | Youtube video | (57:36)

Slavery Without the Chain From PBS's Reconstruction The 2nd Civil War
Sep 29, 2016 | Youtube video | (7:29)

MOOC | Land, Labor, and the Black Codes
The Civil War and Reconstruction, 1865-1890 | 3.2.6
Mar 30, 2015 | Columbia Learn | Youtube video | (10:07)

Primary Sources - The Surviving Recordings of the Slave Narratives Part 1 of 2 (With Subtitles)
The first part of a compilation of audio recorded interviews with former slaves which were mostly taken in the 1930s and 1940s.
Jun 23, 2020 | Youtube video | (3:36:32)

Ex Slaves talk about Slavery in the USA
A story done by ABC News in 1999 about slavery as told by people who were slaves. Recorded in the 1940's.
Oct 11, 2016 | Youtube video | (9:53)

Housing Segregation and Redlining in America: A Short History
In 1968, Congress passed the Fair Housing Act that made it illegal to discriminate in housing. Gene Demby of NPR’s Code Switch explains why neighborhoods are still so segregated today.
Apr 11, 2018 | Code Switch | NPR | (6:36)

The Color of Law: Housing, Segregation & Education
In Cleveland, 45 percent of African-American residents live in neighborhoods that are nearly 80 percent people of color. However, if we are to measure segregation by exposure to other races, our metro area ranks as one of the most segregated. Richard Rothstein, research associate at the Economic Policy Institute and fellow at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, explains.
Dec 8, 2017 | Youtube video | (58:17)

News21: Hate in America - This documentary covers the legacy of hate, and how it shaped America
This documentary covers the legacy of hate in America and how it shaped the country as it is today. Reporters follow characters and experts from across the U.S. including the families of James Byrd, Vernon Dahmer and Medgar Evers, organizers of rallies in Charlottesville and Portland, and a reformed Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.
Oct 9, 2018 | Youtube video | (43:44)

"Tulsa 1921: An American Tragedy"
It's been 100 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre, a two-day attack on Black Americans in the thriving business district of Greenwood. Hear from survivors, descendants of victims and thought leaders in the CBS News special, "Tulsa 1921: An American Tragedy," anchored by "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King.
Jun 2, 2021 | Youtube video | (43:55)

Oldest survivor of Tulsa race massacre testifies before House committee
Viola Fletcher, who at 107 is the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, testified Wednesday before a House subcommittee studying legal remedies to atone for the damage a violent mob did to a thriving Tulsa neighborhood then known as "Black Wall Street." Watch her testimony.
May 19, 2021 | CBS News | Youtube video | (7:32)

Documenting Hate: Charlottesville (full film)
FRONTLINE and ProPublica investigate the resurgence of white supremacists in America. An investigation into how the violent and infamous rally in Charlottesville became a watershed moment for the white supremacist movement. Correspondent A.C. Thompson shows how some of those behind the racist violence went unpunished and shines a light on the rise of new white supremacist groups in America.
Aug 12, 2019 | FRONTLINE | Youtube video | (54:17)

Race Matters: America in Crisis, A PBS NewsHour Special
As the United States grapples with widespread unrest after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, our fraught national relationship with race is again in the spotlight. How can we move forward from this moment? PBS NewsHour believes we should begin the conversation by listening to black Americans. For that, we turn to a variety of grassroots voices, newsmakers and thought leaders.
Jun 11, 2020 | PBS NewsHour | Youtube video | (7:32)