There is a sentiment towards a “post racial” society here in the US, as well as in Pine Bluff. Every since Barak Obama was elected President of the United States, the notion that race is not an issue in our everyday lives is a far cry from the truth. Contrary to popular belief, racism stills exists on many different level; it is embedded in American culture. Dr. Claude Anderson states that “America is, in principle, a majority-rule society. However, in areas of the country where blacks constituted the majority of the population, all manner of legal and illegal means have been used to ensure that they nevertheless cannot wrestle control from whites.” The question is thereby raised, whose is to define and say what racism is, and if it still exists or not? Can, in fact, the perpetrators define racism, or the people subjected to racism define the term?
Racism/white supremacy, as defined by black behavioral scientist and psychiatrist Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, M.D.,” is the local and global power system and dynamic, structured and maintained by persons who classify themselves as white, whether consciously or subconsciously determined, which consists of patterns of perception, logic, symbol formation, thought, speech, action and emotional response, and conducted simultaneously in all areas of people activity (economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and war); for the ultimate purpose of white genetic survival and to prevent white genetic annihilation on planet Earth-a planet on which the vast and overwhelming majority of its people are classified as non-white(black, brown, red, yellow)by white-skinned people, and all of the non-white people are genetically dominant (in terms of skin coloration) compared to the genetic recessive white skin people.” In this pretext we will see the systematic, institutionalized racism which flourishes in Pine Bluff and Jefferson County, Arkansas.
ECONOMICS
Economically, so-called black people are at the bottom of the barrel. Based on data from http://www.city-data.com, as of 2009, residents with income below the poverty level was 41%. Forbes Magazine listed Pine Bluff as the third most impoverished city in America in 2009. At least 15,000 to 20,000 people of Afrikan descent live below the poverty line in Pine Bluff, as 71% of poverty stricken families are homes without fathers. Most of the major corporations and businesses in Pine Bluff are not owned and controlled by Afrikan Americans. Economic development is slow to nonexistent in the Black community. There are no black banks or credit unions in Pine Bluff or Jefferson County, so blacks have to go to white institutions of banking in an attempt to secure needed funds for business projects and entrepreneurships, in which we are not able to secure the same type of funding as whites businesses do. The Pine Bluff Regional Chamber of Commerce and the City Of Pine Bluff Economic and Community Development has done little to restructure the power to the majority of its citizens, who are Afrikan American; which is the control and distribution of resources and wealth.
EDUCATION
Pine Bluff is home to the historically black college/university the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, which is now being promoted as a multicultural school, run by the Arkansas Department of Education, headed by a Caucasian. There is no African studies program at UAPB, to teach black students, at a historically black college, about their culture, history, and heritage. The public schools in Pine Bluff are basically re-segregated once again, with most African American students in the Pine Bluff and Dollarway, and Watson Chapel school districts and Caucasians mainly attending White Hall or Redfield schools. The public school curriculum is not geared to serve the majority of its students, which are of African descent. The textbooks are Eurocentric as well. Besides, the training and programming of the public school system and American university/college system is formatted to support the greater society, but not to improve conditions for the African American community. Most black graduates and professionals leave the black community, which continues to bleed the knowledge and skill base of the black community and leaves children without adequate role models and community leaders.
ENTERTAINMENT
Many African American actors still argue that Hollywood does not use them in nearly enough leading roles and the ones usual available are often laced with stereotypical viewpoints. Also, many stories of interest are not approved by Hollywood for production. The 2011 Oscars was criticized heavily because there were not any so-called ‘minorities’ nominated for any major award categories. Automobile manufacturer Acura released a casting call for the most recent Super Bowl ad, looking for ‘African American’ actors who are ‘nice looking, friendly, not too dark.’ I have seen people make comments like, “Black folks have their own network in BET, and white people don’t have a WET.” Well, in a survey of about 300 channels, about 20 channels, including Hispanic channels, have an excessive amount of white programming, white advertising or white people within the different TV shows. So in reality, television IS white entertainment. White people own and control over 95% of all newspapers, new stations, cable networks, radio stations, and satellite radio; mass media. And BET is owned by Caucasians! Black magazines are proliferated with white companies and businesses, which leave little to no room for Black businesses to advertise since the cost is so much. Many black businesses cannot afford to advertise in Black Americas largest publications, Ebony and Jet, because of such high costs.

LABOR
Unemployment in Jefferson County has hovered around the 10 % unemployment rate, according to the latest calculations for January 2013. It would be safe to say that about 75%-80% of those unemployed would be African Americans. Black contractors are not getting projects and accounts to build the various structures in the city and county. The labor force skill set is a direct reflection of the type of education it receives. Underemployment or the working of jobs that pay minimum to low wages is also plaguing to black communities’ effort to sustain itself, and build stronger family units. Historically, agriculture has been the biggest mode of production and labor for African Americans in the area. Now only 2% of UAPB graduates are majoring in agricultural fields. There is no black owned business in Pine Bluff or Jefferson County that one can work for and make $50,000-$75,000 dollars a year. No apprenticeship programs to train young African Americans to have basic living skills, and community building skills allows for the labor force to be ignorant and non-employable or under employable.

LAW
The laws of the land, local, state and federal laws have been “colored” to enable more people of Afrikan descent and so-called Latinos to be judicially raped by the system of justice. Black people only make up 12-15% of the Unites States population, but make up 51% of the prison population. The 13th Amendment of the US Constitution never ended slavery, it allowed for it to take place if you commit a crime of which you have been duly convicted of. The Dred Scott decision in 1857, handed down by the Supreme Court, stated that people of Afrikan descent were not citizens, but property, and couldn’t petition for their freedom. IT HAS NEVER BEEN OVERTURNED. But other laws have been passed to try and offset the meaning of this monumental case. The 2000 US Census reported that there were 33, 865 lawyers of African American descent out of 800,000 lawyers in the US. Blacks make up 3.9%-4.9% of lawyers in the US. Also, blacks make up only 2.8% of all federal prosecutors, 3.9% of judges, magistrates and other judicial workers according to the 2000 Census. White males and females represent 83% of judges, magistrates and other judicial workers across America. In the State of Louisiana. R.S. 42:2671 [Enacted Acts 1970, No. 46] In signifying race, a person having one-thirty second or less of Negro blood shall not be deemed, described or designated by any public official in the state of Louisiana as “colored,” a “mulatto,” a “black,” a “negro,” a “griffe,” an “Afro-American,” a “quadroon,” a “mestizo,” a “colored person,” or a “person of color.”

POLITICS
Pine Bluff Arkansas got its first African American mayor in 2005, after 166 years of having exclusively Caucasian mayors, or people who consider themselves to be white. The Pine Bluff Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Jefferson, Cleveland and Drew counties, was named among the most dangerous in the nation and the fastest- dropping MSA population in the state of Arkansas. After the civil war, African Americans during the Reconstruction period (1870’s) gained county seats and offices, and were elected to the State Legislature for the first time.