The recent events of police brutality allowed New York City to serve as demonstration platform. In the following presentation several of the most represented events are shown in chronological order, as well as, the biggest and most documented protests.

Racism in America has certainly seen a decline since the Civil Rights Movement but has by no means diminished entirely. As suggested by Professor Checker’s definition of racism, the structural aspect of racism impacts the lives of the oppressed population greatly. In such a unique city as New York it is interesting to see how racism has been built into infrastructure in recent history.

Small talk between New Yorkers could easily be concerning real estate or transportation. Housing costs are by no means a taboo conversation, followed by a conversation on commuting. Both real estate and transportation are intertwined with issues of racial politics and greatly affect the promotion of racial inequality. The diversity that New York experiences distracts from the segregation that is very present. The sugarcoated term for racial residential segregation that is frequently used is “demographic changes”, however infrequently is a discussion held on the factors of racial residential segregation. The New York City Department of Housing officials admit to segregating black and Hispanic applicants from white public housing projects. Despite a settlement on a housing discrimination suit in 1992 by the NYCDOH, little has changed. Home ownership, the alleged American Dream, in New York is a reality for few. And the minorities dwellers of NYC who were able to realize this dream for themselves were in trouble financially because of the most recent mortgage crisis. Subprime loans, or loans made to those who have difficulty time maintaining a regular repayment schedule at a greater interest than prime loans, are three times more likely to be held by a person of color. In 2007, subprime loans made up over a quarter of New York’s refinances. Simultaneously, homes in primarily white neighborhoods maintain their high prices. While in biggest cities of America there is an experience of “white flight”, in which the wealthy whites are leaving urban centers for suburbs, in New York wealthy whites are the only ones can afford to remain in Manhattan while middle class and people of color have no option but to live in the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. However, their jobs remain in Manhattan and they are forced to create a daily migration pattern via public transportation into Manhattan. This racial divide in housing is the foundation for other forms of inequality.

According to the New York City Department of Education, recently there has been an increase in the high school graduation rate which is currently at around 64%; this is still one of the countries lowest graduation rates. The low graduation rates are of course not demographically distributed. Schools located in neighborhoods with low cost of property and low property tax are receiving less funding which is evident in lower teacher quality, larger class size and inadequate facilities resulting in lower graduation rates. In terms of likelihood of attending college schools in which higher test scores are evident have greater number of white and Asian students, while schools that experience lower test scores are more likely to have black and Latino students.

Education leads directly into employment. NYC experiences of the widest income gaps across the nation; the top 20% of earners are disproportionately while and male while the lowest income earners are primarily black and Latino. 80% of the City’s highest paying jobs are held by whites while blacks, Latinos, and Asians collectively make up nearly 60% of the cities population but only bar 20% of total senior and executive staff of city agencies, if this isn’t evidence the of the glass ceiling I’m not sure what is.

New York City’s drug policy plays an important role in the criminal justice system. Queen’s College’s own Harry G. Levin did a study in 2008 called “Marijuana Arrest Crusade” in which he analyzed a decade’s worth of drug related arrests and found that over half of the suspects were black, while only 15% were white. This is an obvious structural form of racism because of policies such as the Rockefeller Drug Laws. These laws were passed in 1973 as an unreasoably harsh punishment for drug pushing. This increases incarceration of people of color significantly; 65% of the prisoners of the state of New York are from the City of New York and almost all of them are people of color. These people are moved from their hometowns into small cities in upstate New York where the prisons are located giving the Republican representatives of these cities the political power they desire.

Structural racism is seen in many different facets outside of police brutality. Wealthy real estate developers build luxury condos that can only be afforded by wealthy whites forcing minorities and middle class members of society into the outer boroughs increasing their commute time. Under-funded city schools are filled with black students while white students attend private schools to escape the pipeline to the criminal justice system. Politicians make laws that increase minority incarceration increasing their political power. This is not the kind of racism that can be changed by the behavior of one person or even a group of people who are not experiencing the oppression of a minority population. This kind of racism is built into our society and the change necessary to eliminate it is bigger than it may appear.

Works Cited
Daniels, Jessie. “Built-In Racism: Persistent Urban Inequality in NYC – Racismreview.com.” Racismreviewcom. N.p., 07 June 2008. Web. 24 May 2015.
Einhorn, Erin. “Diploma Drought Just 45% in City Graduate on Time.” NY Daily News. N.p., 31 Mar. 2008. Web. 24 May 2015.
Gabby. “Predatory Lending and Race: An Ugly Foreclosure Formula | Brownstoner.” Brownstoner. N.p., 02 May 2008. Web. 24 May 2015.
Human Rights Project of the Urban Justice Center. Race Realities in New York City: Response to the Periodic Report of the United States to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Feb. 2008. Web. 24 May 2015.
Les, Christie. “Manhattan Home Prices: Still Crazy.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 3 Jan. 2008. Web. 24 May 2015.
Levine, Harry G., and Deborah Peterson Small. (n.d.): n. pag. New York Civil Liberties Union. Apr. 2008. Web.
Pear, Robert. “BIAS IS ADMITTED BY NEW YORK CITY IN PUBLIC HOUSING.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 30 June 1992. Web. 24 May 2015.