Sure , it ' s definitely more than just police interactions . A lot of the modern benefits are the results of systems that have been in place for quite some time , for example segregated housing markets forcing nonwhite families into homes that will only go down in value thus depriving them of the ability to accumulate wealth . These communities receive less access to resources like education than affluent neighborhoods and suffer an increase in crime , drug use , etc as a result of poverty and inability to escape their situation . This is just an example of how systemic racism manifests itself , and as another commenter pointed out I ' m painting a picture with very broad , Americentric brush strokes . If you ' d like to hear from someone way more knowledgeable than me , Michelle Alexander ' s book The New Jim Crowdpkindleredirect ? encodingUTF 8 btkr 1 is a great and not terribly long book that explores other facets of systemic racism in modern society .