Systemic Racism Analysis

“ We have more work to do when more young black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities across America.” President Barack Obama. This quote is a great example of systemic racism. Systemic racism is a form of racism-, that was created by historical and the societal structures that had been created globally. Congress passing unfair laws, biased police officers, and unfair, unequal education system, making it difficult for non-white people to succeed. Jamal experiences systemic racism throughout his entire life and Jamal learns that the world will not treat him fairly for the reason of his skin color; he finds out the one only way he will ever be successful is for him to use his intellect. Jamal experiences systemic racism in his community. Jamal talks about how his neighborhood, and how it was once a prominent white Irish and Italian community, but as soon as non-white people moved in the white people moved out and became its own segregated block. Jamal

Jamal learns about systemic racism through his upbringing. Jamal believed, as a teenager being a black panther. Jamal matured to realize that thug life was a version of internalized racism do to systemic racism in America. Internalized racism stems off of systemic due to a lack of expectations of non-white teens. After seeing the senseless deaths of young people, he realized that he would have to something to help kids get out of the “thug life” mentality, in order to help them succeed. “If Andre, or perhaps even the boy who shot him, were in a creative arts workshop instead of out partying or doing drugs on the street, then maybe Andre would be alive”(277). Jamal is saying that if non-white teens had more opportunities, they would be able to succeed and not fall into drugs and violence on the streets. This realization helped Jamal be a successful adult and youth advocate for creating programs like IMAPACT that led to a culture of art and creativity among the non-white