There are many reasons why people of color are not much better off today than they were before the Civil Rights Act was passed. These are easily explained:

1. Single-parent households: The war on drugs swept people of color into prison at disproportionate rates. The number of black people incarcerated in 2000 was 26 times the level of 1983. For Latinx in the same timeframe 22 times more. For white people 8 times more. This is true even though most drug users and dealers nationwide are white. People of color are no more likely to be guilty of drug crimes than whites despite the meteoric rise in incarceration.

Mandatory minimum sentences are also responsible for an increase in single-parent households. A first-time drug offense likely means five years in prison regardless of amount or drug. The Anti-drug Abuse Act, emphasizing drug enforcement over treatment, encouraged mass incarceration and family separation.

2.Education: After Brown v. Board of education, San Antonio ISD v. Rodriguez upheld property tax as the primary source of school funding, ignoring residential segregation and discriminatory housing practices. This decision allowed the continuation of unequal funding to schools in low-income and districts where most residents are people of color.

The decision in Milliken v. Bradley actively upheld school segregation. The state of Michigan was funding transportation for suburb districts but banned state funds for transportation for districts within the Detroit city limits. Funding is a major determining factor in the quality of the school and the education. If the supreme court is allowing discrimination in schools, how can people of color advance?

3.Crime: People of color do not commit more crimes than white people. Their neighborhoods are disproportionately affected by discriminatory laws and policing policies. Also, violent crime rates fluctuate and have little correlation to incarceration rates which have skyrocketed since the mid-80s. Violent crime has been on a decline over the last decade, but incarceration rates continue to climb.

It is well documented that the rights and freedoms of people of color have been eroded due to discriminatory policing and prosecuting related to the war on drugs. A lot of those policies and practices are still in use today.

Affirmative action was introduced to help reduce racial and gender gaps in higher education and employment. The goal of the program was to encourage employers/schools to include women and people of color to a more representative percentage. Since the 80s affirmative action has been under attack and has been eroded so that it is almost ineffective today. The continued need for affirmative action is evidenced in the gender and racial pay gaps, education disparities, and hiring disparities, most notably the misrepresentation of the American people in the federal government.

The idea of reverse racism is preposterous. Racism is a system of control from the racial majority through legal and institutional means. Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian peoples have never had the legal or institutional control. Thus, reverse racism is an impossibility.

To summarize, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act have been eviscerated by the Supreme Court. The war on drugs decimated communities of color. Affirmative Action, an attempt at the advancement of women and people of color has been rendered mostly ineffective.

Our good intentions are not working, because they werent allowed to work properly. We need to fix what is wrong and keep pushing for equality. We all have a self-interest in equality as it could make our country truly great!

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Fix what is wrong and push for equality - bdemo.com