Two recent studies show that (1) Black youth have more social equality in Texas, Kentucky and Florida than they do in Chicago and (2) Chicago cops target Black people for car searches 4.7 times more than whites, despite the fact that whites are 2.1 times more likely to have illegal substances in their car.
When these studies, and mountains of other evidence, are combined what do you get? Proof of institutional apartheid in Chicago.
In “Race for Results,” a study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Kentucky, Texas, Florida, Missouri and the majority of other states scored better than Illinois in terms of equal access for Black youth to basic economic, social and educational opportunities. For white youth, only six states beat Illinois in terms of access to the same opportunities, making Chicago a national leader in racial disparity. (The vast majority of Black people in Illinois live in Chicago.)
A study by the ACLU of Illinois, “Racial Disparity in Consent Searches and Dog Sniff Searches,” proves once again that the CPD systematically targets the Black community.
What do you call it when the poorest community in society, a community which is only getting poorer, is kept from equal access to the benefits of living in such a wealthy society? What do we call it when they are then targeted, on the basis of the color of their skin, by an armed force organized by that same society—a society built up on the foundations of slavery and Jim Crow apartheid? That’s not just injustice—that’s a thoroughly rotten, criminal setup. Its continued existence is not justified—not in any way.
