isn't close. To me it's about socioeconomics at its core. Have blacks been discriminated against in the US historically? Absolutely. Has that led to blacks being poorer and having less opportunity. No question. Racism created and perpetuated the cycle of poverty that then leads to increased crime, drugs etc... I do not believe institutional racism really exists today. Are there still racists? Absolutely, but I believe they are an ever decreasing minority of people. The bigger issue to me is what can be done to give blacks and other poor people opportunities to lift them out of the poverty cycle. The ever increasing gap between the haves and the have nots in this country is the bigger issue. With poverty, lack of education, lack of opportunity comes violence, crime, drugs etc... in the black communities and in other ethnicities.