INSTITUTIONAL RACISM
Institutional racism is defined as racism perpetrated by government entities such as schools, the courts or the military. Unlike the racism perpetrated by
WHAT?
individuals, institutional racism has the power to negatively affect the bulk of people belonging to a
racial group.
Everyday untold numbers of both British and American individuals are the targets of racial profiling because of their ethnic background. People of
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Middle Eastern and South Asian descent report being routinely profiled at the nation’s airports. Black and Latino men have been disproportionately targeted by the New York City Police Department’s stop and frisk program.
Several 21st century social movements, such as Black Lives Matter, seek to address institutional racism across the board-from the legal system to schools. Activists, including abolitionists and suffragettes, have long had success in overturning some forms of institutional racism.
STATISTICS
825 people have been shot and killed by police in 2017
963 people were fatally shot and killed by police in 2016.
As of a week ago, there have been 14 more fatal shootings this year than at the same time last year.
BLACK LIVES MATTER
WHAT?
Black Lives Matter is an international activist movement, originating in the African-American community, that campaigns against violence
and systemic racism towards black people. BLM regularly holds protests against police killings of black people and broader issues of racial profiling, police brutality, and racial inequality in the United States criminal justice system.
TIMELINE
- Trayvon Martin is shot by neighbourhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman – February 26th, 2012
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- Jordan Davis is shot at a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida - November 23rd, 2012
- Renisha McBride is shot dead in Detroit after a car accident - November 2nd, 2013
- 'I can't breathe' - Eric Garner is choked to death on Staten Island, New York - July 17th, 2014
- John Crawford is killed by police at a Walmart in Ohio - August 5th, 2014
- Unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed in Ferguson, Missouri - August 9th, 2014
- Laquan McDonald is killed by officer Jason Van Dyke in Chicago - October 20th, 2014
- Tamir Rice is shot by a police officer after carrying a toy gun in Ohio November 23rd, 2014
- Freddie Gray is arrested in Baltimore, dies after sustaining injuries in police custody - April 12th, 2015
- Jamar Clark is shot by police in Minneapolis – November 16th, 2015
- Anton Sterling is shot five times in the chest at close range by police - July 5th, 2016
- Diamond Reynolds lives streams aftermath of boyfriends’ shooting – July 6th, 2016
- Five police officers are killed by a sniper at a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas - July 7th, 2016
- Charles Kinsey is shot while trying to help patient with autism – July 22nd, 2016
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In addition, we must solve our gun violence problem. If we continue to allow criminals and other dangerous people to easily purchase firearms, we
are putting law enforcement in harms way and creating untenable situations for well-intentioned police officers.