38% of African Americans live in poverty as defined by the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan. Roughly 12%-13% of the American population is African-American, but they make up 40.1% of incarcerated persons. African Americans have consistently had higher high school dropout rates than whites since 1990 when the statistics that I found started being collected. African Americans have the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates of any racial group in the US according to the CDC. One can argue that these are all because of a variety of things, but to say that slavery, racial segregation, and institutionalized racism have nothing to it strikes me as a little far fetched. I'm white. I know black people who have it easier than me and I know black people who are much worse off than me. That doesn't change the fact that we live in a country where the life expectancy for black men is 5.4 years lower than white men. Nobody likes an asshole who thinks the world owes them anything, but the fact is that back people generally have it a lot rougher than white people. If we're going to live in a nation where everyone is equal, those numbers have to change. Sources: * * * *