Anti-Blackness in the U.S.

Anti-blackness in America has persisted throughout history in various forms. When talking about racism in the U.S. it is painted as a black and white issue without acknowledging that white supremacy ideals are embedded in various cultures and societies. Anti-blackness is perpetuated through different systems such as education, media, social class, and access or lack thereof to different resources. Systemic racism (Institutional racism) creates the constant impediment of progress by setting up barriers for people of color that otherwise would not be present or evident for those who are white or white passing.
Education
In the education system, race and class often labels the Black community as being a lazy and unintelligent race. There is a theory that people of color are inherently “inferior” and therefore don’t have an advance way of thinking. The “deficit model” correlates a minority students' success with their cultural and racial background, home lifestyle, and family values. There aren't enough studies that portray the success of African Americans in higher education nor how gendered learning is experienced.
Policing of black bodies
The idea that Black students in low-income communities that receive public education are the problem of society is attributed to the amount of surveillance there is within the schools themselves. Police officers are roaming the halls of underfunded schools and making arrests on accounts that should be handled by school administrators, not the law directly. In wealthier schools, students are granted the protection of a security officer but not monitored or policed the same way as a predominantly Black and Latino high school. White supremacy has ingrained the idea of Blackness being automatically dangerous and needing to be controlled versus whiteness. There is a correlation between the students that attend underfunded schools and the rate in which they then enter the correctional system.
School-to-Prison Pipeline
The school-to-prison pipeline manifests in low-income communities and underfunded schools. The lack of sufficient resource can be due to inadequate test scores mandatory by state to qualify for state funding. The lack of resources included outdated texts books, not enough texts books, or no books at all. It also affected the amount and quality of counselors and teachers were available to the students. Special education received even less attention and resources. Students with disabilities had programs that modeled a daycare rather than an educational forward learning environment. Zero-Tolerance Policies penalize minor infractions, such as disrupting class, with punishments as harsh as suspension. There is no follow up with the student or alternatives such as constructive activities. In turn, the students would be out of school unsupervised which leads to actions that could land them in trouble or fall behind in academics. Many of the small infractions are actions that should be addressed within the school.
Violence against the Black body
Incarceration
Although the United States only makes up 5% of the world's population, it holds 25% of the world's incarcerated population. The impact on the Black community is drastic with 1 in 9 African American men, and 1 in 100 African American women being incarcerated. These number can be attributed to the intense policing of poor neighborhoods and overall surveillance of Black bodies that involves Police brutality (Police brutality in U.S.). There were approximately 300,000 inmates in 1972, and then the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. Children of incarcerated parent(s) are then more likely to be incarcerated due to the lack of parental support, disinterest in education, other family responsibilities. Many of the charges involved are petty drug crimes and it is reported that 97% of 125,000 federal inmates have been convicted of non-violent crime overall.
War on drugs
The war on drugs creates unequally cases for those that are convicted for drugs based on their race, class, location, and gender. The penalty for powder cocaine is less severe than crack even though it’s just a different form of the same dug. Crack cocaine is cheaper and more commonly accessible to poor African American versus powder cocaine which then creates the disproportional numbers in arrests. There is an alarming number of wrongful convictions including women who are forced to leave families behind. Black women's experiences within the system are harsh because those that are incarcerated have some form of mental illness. Within the prison system, there are little to no resources available in place specifically formatted to address the issues that Black and Brown women face. The lack of resources available for imprisoned mothers forces then the separation of families either in foster care, adoption, or live with other relatives.
Industry Benefit
Industries benefit from free labor forced upon the people who are imprisoned. It is measured that prison labor produces 98% of the entire market for equipment assembly services. They make 93% of paints and paintbrushes, 92% of stove assembly, 46% of body armor, 36% of home appliances, 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers, and 21% of office furniture. The increase of production in private prisons profit only those affiliates while draining the social wealth. That extra profit has been theorized to be able to cover subsidized housing for the homeless, increase funding for public education in poor neighborhoods, as well as provide free drug rehabilitation programs. The extraction of free labor and profit that private prisons make could create a national health care system, which include improved HIV preventative and treatment programs, better programs for anti-domestic violence, and also creating jobs for the unemployed nation. The profit gained between 1980 and 1994, increased from $392 million to $1.31 billions. The minimum pay for prisoners was 25 cents an hour with no benefits. The military seems to benefit the most because prisons produce 100% of all military gear such as: helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens.

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