Reply #10: I heard a good example of why it's needed this past weekend

[gollygee]

In the 1940s, returning veterans received the GI Bill. Except black veterans weren't able to reap the benefits of the GI Bill.

So white returning vets had houses and paid a mortgage rather than rent, and when their kids were finished with high school, they had equity to borrow against to send them to college. And then, when they died, their kids inherited this house, which led to increased wealth for their children, grandchildren, etc.

But black returning vets didn't have the GI Bill. So when they returned, they continued to rent. And they didn't have money to send their kids to college. And they didn't have a house to leave their kids when they died.

Just that one bit of institutionalized racism is still being felt by us today, 60 years later. And that is just one piece of racism. That certainly isn't the only racist thing that has happened in the US. It's huge and it isn't something that will self-correct.

Here's an article I found about this particular issue: http://www.dollarsandsense.org/blog/2006/12/econamici-when-affirmative-action-was.html