Institutional racism, according to Keeanaga-Yamahatta Taylor author of the book From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, is the policies, programs, and practices both in public and private institutions that work towards increasing the rates at which African-Americans are disenfranchised within America. In the work she portrays the blatant and insidious ways in which racism is institutionalized within this country.

Forms of institutional racism include police brutality and red lining – the phenomenon in which people of color were either granted loans with outrageous interest rates or not given the loans at all based on their race. These practices disenfranchised African-Americans by relegating them to impoverished areas and not provided them the sense of security offered to other ethnic communities. However, what is more pervasive about institutional racism is how politicians continue to disenfranchise Blacks through the rhetoric they use and the policies that they draft.

During President Barack Obama’s time in office, many citizens that his election was a sign of America progress, that we can finally elect individuals to office despite their race. However, even while in office, President Obama, many politicians before him, continue perpetuate ideologies commonly associated with blacks disenfranchisement as part of their own cultural up bringing. This idea is referred to as the “culture of poverty” – refers to the idea that the lack of vertical movement within society among poor people is a result of their own practices. According to Taylor, President Obama state “We have to provide stronger role models than the gangbanger on the corner.” In this comment, according to Taylor, former President Obama linked gun violence in Chicago streets to values and behaviors of the individuals in the community, when this problem is more so rooted in the lack of resources accessible by this group of people.

Policies that perpetuated institutional racism included Ronald Reagan’s Anti-Drug Abuse Act in 1986, commonly call the War on Drugs. During this time, the US was cracking down on drug use in America. However, in the New Jim Crow written by Michelle Alexander, crack cocaine(a drug commonly associated with the black community). Crack cocaine was also a drug that acquired significantly severer punishments compared to other drugs. This lead to the increase of African-Americans (particularly men) within the prison system, taking them away from their communities and leaving a multitude of families without a father.

However, as a society how do we go about correcting the transgressions and dis-advatagement born out of slavery and perpetuated by “culture of poverty’ rhetoric in an age where colorblindness describes the law? As we continue to move forward as a nation I hope that we can begin to move forward and recognize what policies and practices continue to relegate particular groups of people to areas of destitution.