IN BRIEF
- White supremacy and slavery were created by political and economic elites to divide working people and limit their power; White supremacy has continued to do that throughout American history.
- Slavery and racial discrimination against people of color is so contrary to America’s unrealized ideals that it has to be justified by racist depictions of Black people that have then been used to describe all people with low incomes.
- Structural racism has created enormous barriers to Black economic progress and largely accounts for the substantial differences in income and wealth between Black and white people.
- White supremacy also harms white people with low and moderate incomes by undermining efforts to raise wages and create an inclusive and well-funded safety net for all.
INTRODUCTION
This policy brief, unlike the others in the We The People series, is not focused on a particular public policy but on the critical background issue relevant to all public policies in Pennsylvania: structural racism in America. Our goal in this paper is to provide a brief introduction to the issue of structural racism as it affects public policies related to the distribution of political power and economic goods. This is a vast question, and it encompasses not just policies that directly disadvantage Black people or seek to ameliorate those disadvantages but broader public policies as well. We can only scratch the surface of these historically important and deep issues. But it is critical that everyone who seeks public office in Pennsylvania has some introduction to them.
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