Present Day Racism

Sorry but this is a complicated question and even my long answer will not go far enough to provide a satisfactory explanation.

There are obvious examples which make the news, for instance, the disproportionate number of police encounters that end in violence compared to white suspects. But what is really more destructive is what is known as "systemic racism". Many African-Americans have ancestors who predate those of later European immigrants, yet because of the legacy of racial hostility they have never been able to accumulate wealth that gets passed down through generations. Black neighborhoods have been paved over to make way for interstate highways. Banks historically refused to sell mortgages to black applicants unless they were buying homes in undesirable locations near often-polluted industrial sites. Schools in black neighborhoods have been underfunded for decades, even though no longer technically segregated. Black women have a greater likelihood of dying in childbirth, black men are incarcerated at high rates, black children are often raised in poverty and subject to more childhood diseases and higher rates of accidental injuries and death. Black people who have made it into the middle class are still vulnerable – lured into sub-prime mortgages only to lose their property in a recession. Hardworking black people are often the first fired – you can see this in the government layoffs of federal employees. And there's just this subtle and insidious undercurrent of societal racism that doesn't affect white people – anytime a black person fails a job interview, gets treated shabbily by a salesperson, or can't get a loan they have this nagging question – was it just because of my skin color?

Now, it's true that there are other identifiable minorities in the USA who are subject to racism – Native Americans and Hispanics – but cultural assimilation and acceptance, while not guaranteed, is more easily achieved. Chinese and Japanese people have certainly faced racial hostility but their cultural practices have allowed them to thrive economically. Similarly, dark-skinned South Asians often encounter racism but, as relatively new arrivals on the scene, they aren't carrying the burden of 400 years of discrimination.