African-Americans are victims of systematic racism in the modern day US.

I apologize for FF my last round. There was a major death in my family, and I needed to travel out of state. While I enjoy these discussions, family always comes first. Obviously points will be taken off because of my absence, but I hope both my opponent and the voters can understand the position I am in. Now on to my argument. Systemic Racism RefuteRedliningThe practice of redlining does not necessarily equate to making decisions based on the race of the particular inhabitants. Based on information from information gathered from the US Office of Bureau Statistics (Source 1) property crime rates in black communities are exponentially higher than in other minority communities. Banks and businesses refuse to do business in those areas not on the basis of skin color, but rather on the statistical likelihood of robbery, looting, and other forms of property damage. If prices are being selectively raised in these communities, it is likely to pay for security systems and/or replacement of damaged merchandise. It would be nonsensical for a company in a profit-driven economy to deny people service based on the color of their skin. It makes no sense for businesses and banks to refuse the money of people based on their skin color alone, as to do so would be to turn away potential profit. If inner-city black communities carried the same low financial risk factor as other areas of the country, those institutions refusing to do business in those communities would take a tremendous loss. Surely, another “non-racist” company or bank would come in and profit off of this untapped reserve of wealth and safety, but this is not the case. In short, any avoidance of black communities is based on security and risk-factors, not skin color. Discrimination in LoansPerhaps the most famous of supposed evidence of “Institutionalized Racism”, the charge that banks unduly deny blacks access to loans does not hold up to scrutiny. According to a study conducted at the University of Iowa in 2010, banks are most likely to deny loans to black males and white females. On the other side of the equation, white males and black females were lent to at virtually the same rate (Source 2). Unless we are to assume that there is a grand conspiracy amongst banks to elevate black females and white males into the realms of home ownership, it seems the problem lies outside of discrimination. It was this perception of mass racism in the banking industry, however, which caused President Clinton’s Bureau of Housing & Urban Development agreed to allow the “quasi-governmental agencies” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac access to affordable housing credit in exchange for buying subprime securities from low income clients. Shockingly, putting people who had no money and bad credit into houses they could not afford backfired dramatically, causing the 2008 global economic meltdown known as the “Great Recession”. Argument of Past Systematic RacismMy opponent is correct in his assertion that systemic/institutional racism existed in the US in the past, however I disagree with his assertion that injustice 52 years ago equates to injustice in the present day. Remember that we are debating whether systemic racism exists in the modern day US, not on the effects of past injustice.Nonetheless, I believe my opponent’s view of race/poverty related economic mobility is exaggerated. There is no question that it is easier for those born into rich families to succeed. This propensity for success, however, does not handicap the less wealthy from achieving their own social and economic mobility.For example, to use data from a time in which systemic racism was fresh in many people’s memories, If you track individual income mobilities of family structures from 1975 to 1991, you’ll find that 95% of families who were in the bottom 20% in 1975 were no longer there in 1991. If you track this data by ethnicity only, you’ll find that 69% of African-Americans who were poor in 1975, had moved out of that bottom 20% by 1991 (Source 3). Recent studies from 1996 to 2013 show these numbers holding steady (Source 4). SourcesSource 1: http://www.bjs.gov...Source 2: http://now.uiowa.edu...Source 3: http://object.cato.org...Source 4: https://www.treasury.gov...