The Arc of History

How did we get to where we are today?

Racism can be defined as organized systems within societies that cause avoidable and unfair inequalities. This includes unconscious and conscious actions in the domains of power, resources, capacities, and opportunities across racial or ethnic groups. Racism can manifest through beliefs, stereotypes, prejudices or discrimination.

To understand, we need to learn about the historical factors that have led to our present moment. Large scale processes, including slavery and Jim Crow, have resulted in racial disparities and contributed to false and harmful beliefs across groups. For almost 90% of our country’s history, laws and rules formally discriminated against African-Americans, affecting social, economic and political structures to this day.

Today, inequalities generated by these structures interact with on-going racial intolerance and misunderstanding to create a system where African-Americans are disadvantaged.

Thus, to understand how we got to where we are today, we need to understand the effects of the past.