[danabrams]

For 350 years of US history africans and their descendants were enslaved. Native Americans were ripped from their land and relocated, often with genocidal levels of casualties.

After that, these two groups were substantially discriminated against in law, and other races were added to the mix to be given less rights than others.

Today, there are huge disparities between outcomes for different races in large part due to this historical discrimination. There's also an ingrained culture of stereotyping and discrimination that's hard to lift. It doesn't matter if you're the first generation of Americans descended from African immigrants who came in the 1980s... you still are impacted by this legacy.

The concept of affirmative action was to specifically counteract the effects of these negative, historical circumstances and provide a countervailing effect.

I can't speak to other countries, but in the US, it is definitely the case that poor people of color have a harder time getting ahead than equally poor white people. (I suspect it's similar elsewhere, but we are also a pretty racially diverse country, so the effect is larger)

[goatlover]

> I can't speak to other countries, but in the US, it is definitely the case that poor people of color have a harder time getting ahead than equally poor white people.

Then why are the white people equally poor? And does it matter where they live? For example in a major city compared to a dying small town where industry has left? That's a really broad claim to make. Would it hold true in Appalachia, for example?

[chasd00]

White rural poor is the absolute lowest class in the US. Late night show hosts openly joke about fantasizing their death so it’s one less vote for the other guy. It’s probably the only class in the US where the rest of US society relishes their suffering.

[arbuge]

> it is definitely the case that poor people of color have a harder time getting ahead than equally poor white people

Do you have any sources for that?

[danabrams]

Do I have any sources that systemic racism is real?

I mean, there's a large body of evidence (I personally like the economics methodology of this study, which has been repeated many times: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/0203hrn...).

But just like many will never be convinced that vaccines are safe and the earth is round, many will never be convinced that racism in the US is real, I suppose.

[ix-ix]

I once failed an undergraduate student because they argued that racism ended in 1965 and that racism did not exist after that. It's like they didn't pay attention in class at all.