Linda Harrison

New video: Racism in America by the Numbers

The playlist discussed at the end of the video. (If you have suggestions for others, share them!)

SOURCES:

On average, black men’s prison sentences are 20% longer than white men’s for comparable crimes.

Black people and white people use illegal drugs at similar rates, but black people are far more likely to be arrested for drug use.

African Americans are far more likely to be stopped and searched (although the contraband hit rate is higher among white people) in California.

And also in New York (where the data isn’t quite as good but appears to be comparable to CA).

Those wrongfully convicted and later exonerated by DNA are disproportionately African American.

Black kids are far more likely to be tried as adults and more likely to receive life sentences.

Black former convicts get fewer employer callbacks than white former convicts.

Emily and Brendan are more hirable than Lakisha and Jamal.

Another study on racial bias in hiring.

Similar results have been found in the UK: and also in Australia. Also, this news story has some great analysis about employment and race. 

High schools with mostly African American and Latino students are less likely to offer courses in Algebra II or Chemistry than high schools with mostly white students.

This article explores many of the other ways that increasingly segregated schools have negatively affected African American students.

And this story discusses the fact that African American students are more than twice as likely to be suspended as white students—even in preschool.

The American College of Physicians report on racial disparities in U.S. health care.

This (dated) study is also damning, and there’s lot of good info here.

More info on increasing disparities in life expectancy between black and white people in the U.S.

The most recent polls show fewer white people thinking racism is not a problem than the ones I used in this video MY BAD (although still a huge divide): here and here and here.

Inheritance plays a huge role in the racial wealth disparity. (And a related wikipedia article.)

And lastly, the wealth gap is indeed widening. 

I Don’t Know What to Do With Good White People by Brit Bennett

Black Boy Interrupted by Ta-Nehisi Coates and The Case for Reparations by Coates, the latter of which is less of a personal account than the former but is nonetheless inimitable.

This American Life: Is This Working? (particularly Act 1)

The whole Green family (including the kids!*) spent much of today at the DFTBA Records warehouse signing stuff, packing orders, and goofing around. 

Along the way, I signed quite a lot of posters. Erin Lazak’s "Nerds Like Us" poster is now available signed by me, and the two DFTBA posters you see above are signed by both Hank and me, as is the Keep Calm and DFTBA poster.

All these posters—and EVERYTHING at dftba.com—is 20% off today through Monday!