Racism is hardly over in America

To the editor:

(re: “Affirmative action needed to end,” Aug. 3)

Joe Bialek writes, “the minorities of the country have been given enough time to allow for the ‘cream to rise to the top.’” That comment is certainly blithe, but is it factually correct?

Black American families have a seventh of the household wealth of whites, according to a 2019 survey conducted by the Federal Reserve System’s Board of Governors. This is largely because home ownership rates — and the appraisals given to Black-owned homes — are much lower.

White households inherit 5.3 times more wealth than Black Americans, according to a budget model created in 2021 by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Without inheritances, young Black Americans have trouble buying homes, paying for college, and starting families. And the grandparents they should have been inheriting from were often prevented from buying real estate by segregation, redlining, and racial covenants on deeds.

Banks have been caught refusing mortgages to Black buyers as recently as 2020. Real estate discrimination is still being documented.

It is a principle in the law that, when one party damages another, they cannot simply stop inflicting the harm, and then the two parties are even. The damages must be reimbursed. Justice is when the plaintiff is made whole.

Affirmative action was a compromise measure: It was intended to reduce the competitive disadvantage that young Black Americans face. Maybe Mr. Bialek has a point. Maybe, if we want to repair the damage done to wealth, we should not focus on prestigious degrees. That is too indirect.

Now that the extremists on the U.S. Supreme Court have ruled the federal government must take away universities’ right to admit Black students, this tyranny leaves us no choice. We will have to resort to direct payments instead: reparations.

Multigenerational poverty has been inflicted on Black Americans, and this has manifold harms: poor health outcomes, psychological trauma and stress in childhood, higher death rates, less educational accomplishment, higher rates of imprisonment.

Money will not fix all of that, but cash settlements are what our system of justice has to offer to those who have been harmed. Since Mr. Bialek and the Supreme Court felt so discriminated against by policies that allowed Black students to excel, we will need them to fund the alternative with their tax dollars.

Jason Brougham