Do you feel like all people of color have equal opportunity in America?

@IstillmissEP it's ignorant to suggest that poor people don't work hard or take calculated risks.

Slavery ended but POC were still slaves in all but name. POC were oppressed and pushed into ghettos and treated like criminals just for existing. It still happens on the regular.

Individual white people may not be racist but the institutions that have existed since long before we were born have racist effects.

@IstillmissEP what do you mean by pains?

@IstillmissEP once again I don't know what you mean. Problems such as what?

@IstillmissEP I was confused by what you meant because I, being Caucasian, am not familiar with every problem facing the black community.

Obviously there are genetic factors that predispose different people to certain diseases.

However one could easily argue that the effects of systemic/institutional racism have a negative effect on health outcomes for black men and women. Another good example is that black women have higher mortality rates from things like pregnancy complications and breast cancer.

It starts with poor schooling (because POC are disproportionately represented among poor school districts) leading to lack of education and poor health decisions out of ignorance. Then you have bias against POC in healthcare especially in ED units where low income people often end up and POC get the really short end of the stick when they are low income and brown.

So it's both genetic and due to institutional bias against POC in a system that no one alive today designed. It's no ones fault but it is everyone's problem.

Now fixing these issues... that's a whole other kettle of fish. I see no way of promoting equality that doesn't also discriminate against people who are not so colorful and hurting feelings.

My own feelings get hurt when we get told our department is "too white." They don't count the philipino people, the Korean people, or the Hispanics and even though we have four women of color and at least four men of color in our office with a staff of about 30 it's still not enough. In order to be as black as they want us we would have to have a disproportionate number of black people at this job. So if POC are 12-14% of the population and the goal of HR is for them to make up 25% of the workers at my job they are basically forced to promote POC over equally qualified white candidates.

Oh and I just did the math. The POC in our department is about 26%!!!

@IstillmissEP I think poorer school districts have fewer resources so the kids there of all colors get fewer opportunities to learn.

There is also, as mentioned in some other comments here, the issue of being not "black enough" for some people if a POC decides to really study hard.

You know what demographic is ridiculously over represented in my profession? Women. I've even spoken to male nurses before who have faced professional discrimination because of their sex.

@IstillmissEP I don't have kids because all sapient beings suffer and I will not do that to another but I see what you are asking.

Racial segregation only alienates people further. I think a big part of the negative perception of black people has to do with black culture being so distinct and alien to a lot of us.

I want to add that by true equality I mean that opportunities are not limited because of color or socioeconomic status. That's a pipe dream. As I've said I habe no idea how to fix it.