America's racial caste system remained basically untouched after desegregation. This is because the root cause of segregation was white supremacy. Integrating American public places treated a symptom of white supremacy rather than getting at the heart of the issue. As long as white supremacy thrives in this country, so will our racial hierarchy that puts whites above all others.
One way this racial caste system has persisted is through incarceration. For instance, black people as a whole do less drugs than whites, yet our prison system is bursting at the seams with black people convicted of petty drug offenses. Additionally, drugs that are associated with black people garner much more serious sentences than drugs associated with white people. The ACLU has noted crack cocaine and powder cocaine have a 100-to-1 sentencing ratio, meaning those caught with cocaine (a "white people drug") need to have 500 grams on their person to be sentenced to the same amount of prison time as someone caught with 5 grams of crack (a "black people drug"). There are two parallel justice systems: one designed to insulate whites from consequence and one designed to imprison as many black bodies as it can, for as long as possible. These examples are generalizations, as I recognize there is ample evidence of black people receiving lenient sentences and white people that received unduly punitive sentences.
