ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses systemic racism by examining how white Americans, elite and ordinary whites, have racially framed and organized US society and thereby often taken action to prevent access to real liberty and socioeconomic advancement for a great many Americans. The example of systemic discrimination by elite white men in the chapter involves one of the country's oldest, largest, and most oppressed communities of color—African Americans. The historical and contemporary examples underscore the centrality of white-on-black oppression to the past and present development of US society. The chapter highlights the substantial reality and impact of African American agency and resistance to this white racial oppression. Racial inequality in income is part of the contemporary inequality story. One major aspect of the failure lies in the area of providing first-rate public education facilities like those long provided for most whites.
