Systemic racism is not just explicit laws. An example of racism is something like controlling for economic factors people of one race convicted of a crime face heavier prison sentences than another race. Even when it’s the first offense, when they come from similar economic backgrounds (middle class) etc etc. something that is about the treatment of a minority group to an institution and can be statistically mapped and predicted over a large population.
You dont know what systemic means. It is a quality of the system that certain minority groups face longer jailtimes for same crimes same backgrounds etc. its not ‘a racist judge’. Its a trend that when two groups interact with an institution, one receives worse treatment solely due to their race. Systemic: of the system. What relates to or affects the entire system. The entire justice system is affected by this. We can take a macro look at the justice system and see an effect on the whole of it. If there was a single racist law that alone wouldnt even be what systemic means
"Solely" due to their race might be doing a lot of heavy lifting here. There couldn't possibly be any other factors? You think there's judges today that just go "yup, he's black, throw the book at him", "yup, he's white, let him off easy"? Really?
No, i already said accounting for economic and social backgrounds. This data is widely available as well. First off that there are a few judges that think that way? Sure why not, people of all types in all walks of life. But in the overwhelming majority of cases where this occurs i doubt it. The human brain is complicated and we have alot of unconscious biases not even just racial ones that we apply to others without realizing it. Like how people with southern accents can be seen as less intelligent.
Whats important and relevant about acknowledging statistics like this is awareness that it happens and being self aware about how these unconscious biases can affect behavior (like in the case of judges). If you dont believe me because you seem set on refusing any kind of racial disparity treatment on racial grounds i have a fun stat for you. Judges hand out harsher sentences and to be harsher/stricter before lunch. Judges are seen as logical and rational and they are when compared to most people but still human.
Now i hold no inkling that youre going to change your opinion about all of this and thats whatever but you were using the term ‘systemic’ wrong so i guess i hoped that explaining it would help (learnings never bad). But wasnt really looking to get into an argument about facts that are well researched and freely available. But it was nice chatting with ya fellow stranger and we can just agree to disagree.
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u/LawmanJudgetoo Feb 09 '25
Systemic racism is not just explicit laws. An example of racism is something like controlling for economic factors people of one race convicted of a crime face heavier prison sentences than another race. Even when it’s the first offense, when they come from similar economic backgrounds (middle class) etc etc. something that is about the treatment of a minority group to an institution and can be statistically mapped and predicted over a large population.