Published by CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. www.cqresearcher.com Racial Conflict Are U.S. policies discriminatory? ac e-centered conflicts in several U.S. cities have led to the strongest calls for policy reforms since the turbulent civil rights era of the 1960s. Propelled R largely by videos of violent police confrontations with African-Americans, protesters have taken to the streets in Chicago, New York and other cities demanding changes in police tactics. meanwhile, students — black and white — at several major universities have pressured school presidents to deal aggressively Demonstrators on Christmas Eve protest an alleged with racist incidents on campus. And activists in the emerging cover-up of a video showing a white Chicago police officer shooting 17-year-old African-American Laquan Black Lives matter movement are charging that “institutional racism” McDonald 16 times. The shooting — and others in which white police officers killed black suspects, often unarmed — has added fuel to a persists in public institutions and laws a half century after legally nationwide debate about systemic racism. sanctioned discrimination was banned. Critics of that view argue that moral failings in the black community — and not institutional racism — e xplain why many African-Americans lack parity with whites in such areas as wealth, employment, housing and educa - I tional attainment. B ut those who cite institutional racism say enor - THIS REPORT N THE ISSUES ......................27 mous socioeconomic gaps and entrenched housing and school S BACKGROUND ..................33 segregation patterns stem from societal decisions that far outweigh I CHRONOLOGY ..................35 individuals’ life choices. D CURRENT SITUATION ..........40 E CQ Researcher • Jan. 8, 2016 • www.cqresearcher.com AT ISSUE ..........................41 Volume 26, Number 2 • Pages 25-48 OUTLOOK ........................42 RECIPIENT Of SOCIETY Of PROfESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AwARD fOR BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................46 EXCELLENCE N AmERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILvER GAvEL AwARD THE NEXT STEP ................47 RACIAL CONfLICT Jan. 8, 2016 THE ISSUES SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS Volume 26, Number 2 EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Thomas J. Billitteri • would improving police 28 Wealth Gap Divides [email protected] 27 interactions with African- Whites, Minorities ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITORS: maryann Am ericans significantly advance white households’ 2013 Haggerty, [email protected], race relations in America? median net worth was nearly Kathy Koch , [email protected], 13 times that of blacks. Chuck mcCutcheon , • would new laws and [email protected], government programs reduce Blacks Highest in Police Scott Rohrer, [email protected] institutional racism? 29 Stops SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: • Does government need to Disproportionate percentages Thomas J. Colin recommit to school desegre - of blacks were stopped in [email protected] gation? Chicago and New York City. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Brian Beary, marcia Clemmitt, Sarah Glazer, Kenneth Jost, Black Students Lag in Reed Karaim, Peter Katel , Barbara mantel, BACKGROUND 32 Math, Reading Tom Price Only 7 percent of African- 33 Slavery and Jim Crow American 12th-graders were SENIOR PROJECT EDITOR: Olu B. Davis Anti-black violence persisted proficient in mathematics in ASSISTANT EDITOR: Ethan mcLeod after slavery was abolished. 2013. INTERN: molly mcGinnis ‘White Affirmative Action’ Chronology FACT CHECKERS: Eva P. Dasher, 34 New Deal reforms often 35 Key events since 1789. michelle Harris, Nancie majkowski, excluded blacks. Robin Palmer ‘B lack Lives Matter’ Slogan Civil Rights 36 Praised and Condemned 34 Laws passed in the 1960s Backers cite police brutality; banned racial discrimination. critics say the slogan is anti- cop. Economic Shifts An Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. 37 Crime wracked low-income Race Becomes Big Issue black neighborhoods in the 38 in Upcoming Primaries VICE PRESIDENT AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, 1970s and ’80s. Activists demand more action HIGHER EDUCATION GROUP: from Democrats. michele Sordi EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ONLINE LIBRARY AND CURRENT SITUATION At Issue: REFERENCE PUBLISHING: 41 Is Black Lives matter a valid Todd Baldwin Police on Trial slogan? 40 Baltimore and Chicago police Copyright © 2016 CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Pub - face charges in black men’s lications, Inc. SAGE reserves all copyright and other deaths. FOR FURTHER RESEARCH rights herein, unless pre vi ous ly spec i fied in writing. No part of this publication may be reproduced Campus Revolts For More Information electronically or otherwise, without prior written 42 Students are protesting 45 Organizations to contact. permission. Un au tho rized re pro duc tion or trans mis - racism on campus. sion of SAGE copy right ed material is a violation of 46 Bibliography federal law car ry ing civil fines of up to $100,000. Selected sources used. CQ Press is a registered trademark of Congressional OUTLOOK Quarterly Inc. The Next Step Hope and Fear 47 Additional articles . CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036) is printed on acid-free 42 Demographic shifts will paper. Pub lished weekly, except: (march wk. 4) (may shape future race relations, Citing CQ Researcher wk. 4) (July wks. 1, 2) (Aug. wks. 2, 3) (Nov. wk. 4) say experts. 47 Sample bibliography formats. and (Dec. wks. 3, 4). Published by SAGE Publications, Inc., 2455 Teller Rd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Annual full -service subscriptions start at $1,131. for pricing, call 1-800-818-7243. To purchase a CQ Researcher report in print or electronic format (PDf), visit www.cqpress. com or call 866-427-7737. Single reports start at $15. Bulk purchase discounts and electronic-rights licensing are also available. Periodicals postage paid at Thousand Cover: AP Photo/Rex Features Oaks, California, and at additional mailing offices . POST - mAST ER: Send ad dress chang es to CQ Re search er , 2600 virginia Ave., N.w., Suite 600, wash ing ton, DC 20037. 26 CQ Researcher Racial Conflict BY PETER KATEL ished are attending impover - THE ISSUES ished schools in inner-city neighborhoods [and] are never hicago’s magnificent prepared to even qualify to mile, a 13-block stretch get into higher education. They C of upscale shops, sleek are victims of structural barriers office towers and tony hotels, to opportunity.” usually buzzes with post- Others deny that racism is Thanksgiving holiday shopping. institutionalized, saying such But late last year it became a characterizations are designed focal point of perhaps the most to mask the black commu - urgent social issue wracking nity’s failure to meet the chal - the nation: relations between lenges that came after legal whites and minorities, particu - discrimination ended in the larly African-Americans. 1960s. They note that as the “Sixteen shots! Thirteen nation’s first African-A merican months!” demonstrators shout - president winds up his sec - r r ed as they virtually shut down a ond term, a record 48 black C “Black friday” commerce in b lawmakers are serving in o R Chicago’s main shopping / Congress and countless s zone. The catalyst was a just- e more African-Americans pre - g a released video showing a m side as big-city mayors, po - I y Chicago police officer shoot - t lice chiefs and even the U.S. t e 3 ing 17-year-old Laquan mc - G attorney general. Donald 16 times on a city Following a hung jury in December, Baltimore police “There is no de jure [legal] officer William G. Porter, right, here with his lawyer, will street, killing him. City officials be retried on charges stemming from the death of segregation in the United States had kept the video under Freddie Gray, 25, last April. Gray died from spinal cord anymore,” says walter E. wraps for 13 months until a injuries allegedly sustained while he was being williams, an African-American reporter forced its release transported in a police van after his arrest for economics professor at George through a freedom-of-information carrying a pocket knife. Porter is one of mason University in fairfax, six officers charged in Gray’s death. request. 1 va. “At one time, black Amer - Then, one day after Christmas, Chica - of frustration over large gaps between icans did not have the guarantees that go police accidentally shot and killed African-Americans and whites in house - everyone else did, but the civil rights an unarmed grandmother while also hold wealth, housing, education and struggle is over and won. That does not fatally shooting an allegedly mentally employment. 2 mean there are not major problems in troubled 19-year-old college student more than 50 years after the official the black community. when blacks were who was reportedly threatening family end of segregation and efforts by the no more than a generation or more out members with a baseball bat. The Rev. martin Luther King Jr. and other of slavery, there was greater family stability Chicago events followed other deadly leaders to protect minorities’ civil rights, and there weren’t all these problems we incidents — in ferguson, mo., New many activists and some scholars charge see among black folks today.” York City, North Charleston, S.C., and that nothing less than institutional racism As the debate continues, a new elsewhere — in which white police still grip the nation . generation of activists is challenging officers used deadly force against black “we still have segregation across Amer - racial inequities that have lingered suspects, many of them unarmed. Ten - ica geospatially, with housing practices long after pundits declared a “post- sions over these deaths ratcheted up and banking practices that actually re - racial America” following Barack again at year’s end when a Cleveland tarded if not prevented integration op - Obama’s 2008 election. Police encoun - grand jury declined to indict a police - portunities,” says maya Rockeymoore, ters with black citizen are only one man who shot to death 12-year-old president and CEO of Global Policy So - impetus for renewed activism. Also Tamir Rice, who had been holding a lutions, an advocacy think tank on racial key, advocates say, are the socioeco - toy replica of a pistol.