Dave Murray, you are continuing to take personally things that are an institutionalized part of the culture and may or may not have anything to do with you as an individual. Real racism exists in staggering amounts and you making that about you somehow is a lot more non-productive than trying to talk about it.

Proof That Institutional Racism Is Still A Problem

1. Black job applicants are about half as likely as white applicants to get an interview callback.

2. 58 percent of prisoners are black or Hispanic, despite making up one quarter of the U.S. population.

3. Black people are 12 times more likely to be wrongly convicted of drug-related crimes than white people.

In a 2012 report by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, racial bias in the housing market was evidenced by the rate at which homebuyers were shown available housing. The report found that renters and homebuyers of color were shown and told about less homes white homebuyers.

7. In 2013, the unemployment rate for black college grads was almost twice as high as the rate for grads overall.

These are not problems that are caused or exacerbated by talking about racism. Most racism is not about overt hate; it’s about subconscious bias and belief in where certain people belong in the social hierarchy. It’s the race equivalent of sexism vs. misogyny.

You being defensive about that because you have not experienced great superiority to or privilege over black people doesn’t mean that this isn’t a pervasive problem. Take your individual experiences out of the equation for just a moment and look at the stories, statistics, etc. in a comprehensive way and it should start to look different to you.

1. African-Americans comprise only 13% of the U.S. population and 14% of the monthly drug users, but are 37% of the people arrested for drug-related offenses in America.[1]
2. Studies show that police are more likely to pull over and frisk blacks or Latinos than whites. In New York City, 80% of the stops made were blacks and Latinos, and 85% of those people were frisked, compared to a mere 8% of white people stopped. Host a poetry slam to educate others on racism and reduce prejudice in your community. Sign up for Mic Check Racism .[2]
3. After being arrested, African-Americans are 33% more likely than whites to be detained while facing a felony trial in New York.[3]
4. In 2010, the U.S. Sentencing Commission reported that African Americans receive 10% longer sentences than whites through the federal system for the same crimes.[4]
5. In 2009 African-Americans are 21% more likely than whites to receive mandatory minimum sentences and 20% more likely to be sentenced to prison than white drug defendants.[5]
6. In a 2009 report, 2/3 of the criminals receiving life sentences were non-whites. In New York, it is 83%.[6]
7. African Americans make up 57% of the people in state prisons for drug offenses.[7]
8. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics concluded that an African American male born in 2001 has a 32% chance of going to jail in his lifetime, while a Latino male has a 17% chance, and a white male only has a 6% chance.[8]
9. In 2012, 51% of Americans expressed anti-black sentiments in a poll; a 3% increase from 2008.[9]
10. A survey in 2011 revealed that 52% of non-Hispanic whites expressed anti-Hispanic attitudes.[10]
11. Reports show that nearly 50% of Americans under 18 are minorities. The trend projects a reversal in the population where by 2030, the majority of people under 18 will be of color, and by 2042 nonwhites will be the majority of the U.S. population.[11]