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in the agencies and organizations that oversee criminal justice,
education, health care, politics, employment, and other aspects
of society. African American studies professor Eddie S. Glaude
Jr. describes systemic racism as a value gap, the idea that White
people are valued more than Blacks:

We talk about the achievement gap in education or the
wealth gap between white Americans and other groups,
but the value gap refl ects something more basic: that no
matter our stated principles or how much progress we
think we’ve made, white people are valued more than oth-
ers in this country, and that fact continues to shape the life
chances of millions of [Black] Americans. 7

Laws to Harass Black People

African Americans have plenty of experience with racial bias in
the criminal justice system, beginning with interactions with po-
lice. A 2019 study of 100 million police traffi c stops by Stanford
University shows that Black drivers across the United States were
twice as likely to be pulled over by police
compared to White drivers. Blacks were
“No matter our stated four times more likely to be searched for
principles or how much
progress we think we’ve drugs or weapons. The authors of the
made, white people are study concluded that these fi gures re-
valued more than others vealed evidence of widespread discrimi-
in this country.” 7 nation in police decisions to stop and
search drivers. Many Black Americans
— Eddie S. Glaude Jr., African
American studies professor have a derisive term for this discrimina-
tion. They say there were pulled over for
DWB, or driving while Black.
In 2015 the New York Times examined tens of thousands of
traffi c stops in North Carolina, one of six states that collected this
type of data at that time. The newspaper’s investigation included
personal stories from African Americans who described being

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