Thank you for your response. I think you hit it head on. I'm half desi, half black. My mom is desi and while she's experienced racism here (she and her Chinese roommate were called niggers by white people at her college and she experience a lot of post 9-11 racism) my dads experience has been extremely different than my moms in this country. I am in my 20s and I am the first generation to grow up out side of segregation on my fathers side. I'm actually a third generation college graduate on my fathers side, but my grandparents had none of the oppotunites I have today with a degree. My grandmother actually had a masters degree in education but was only hired as a teachers aide. Despite these challenges my grandparents still enouraged my dad to go to college. And I can see exactly why most black people are distrustful of institutions in America because it never meant the same thing for them as it did for white people. Why go to college if you're not going to be able to benefit from it? Why send your kids there? The primary and secondary education system is a whole other part that factors in to inequality as well.
I was talking with my mom not too long ago and she was explaining how difficult it was to get an apartment when my dad and her got married (this is in the 80s). My mom said when ever the landlords saw my dad they would say there were no apartments available even though they said there were ti her before. my mom started going alone to look at them. They lost several apartments after the landlords saw my dad and in the end they finally were able to get an apartment, but the landlord doubled the deposit after my dad showed up. There was a lot of discrimination they faced buying their first house and car as well. These are all things that add up and prevent people of color from upward mobility.
Some of the experiences my dad had are horrific. He was stabbed by a white supremacist as a child. He never talks about it, I only know because I asked my mom why he wouldn't tell me about the scar he had on his side and she told me what happened.
I had a really nice childhood and comfortable upbringing, but I can look at other black people in my age group and I know the forces that are working against people of color. It took a couple generations for me to be able to stand on my feet. And now that a lot of the former discriminatory laws that kept poor people down have been lifted, new laws and policies spring up to prevent them from standing up like increasing college tuition, housing prices etc. this affects everyone, but it especially affects people who are barely able to have access to housing & education