Systemic Racism Analysis

"We have more work to do when more young black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities across America." President Barack Obama. Systemic racism was created by historical and the Societal structure that has been created in America and around the world. Congress creating unfair laws, biased police officers, and a unfair, unequal education system, making it difficult for non-white people to succeed. Jamal experiences, systemic racism throughout his entire life and Jamal learns that the world will not treat him fairly for the reason of his skin color; he finds out the one only way he will ever be successful is for him to use his intellect. Jamal learns that the world will treat him differently because the color of his skin. Jamal talks about how his neighborhood, the Edenwald project, and how it was once a prominent white Irish and Italian community, but as soon as
Jamal believed, as a young boy, in the thug life philosophy, “ ...thug life was a celebration of young brothers who hustled, gangbanged, and lived outside the law to survive” (272). Jamal matured to realize that thug life was a result of systemic racism due to a lack of expectations of non-white teens. After seeing the senseless deaths of young people, he realized that he would have to something to help kids get out of “thug life” to help them succeed. “If Andre, or perhaps even the boy who shot him, were in a creative arts workshop instead of out partying or doing drugs on the street, then maybe Andre would be alive”(277). Jamal is saying that if non-white teens had more opportunities, they would be able to succeed and not fall into drugs and violence on the streets. This realization helped Jamal be a successful adult and youth advocate for creating programs like IMAPACT that led to a culture of art and creativity among the non-white