Anti-Blackness is not limited to white people. It can appear in any community, including other communities of color and among Black people themselves, through colorism, beauty standards and stereotypes. Scholars use the term to describe how the world places Black people at the bottom of racial hierarchies, a pattern rooted in the transatlantic slave trade and chattel slavery.
In the US, anti-Blackness is visible in data. In 2023, Black women died from pregnancy-related causes at a rate of 50.3 per 100,000 live births, more than three times the rate for white women, according to the CDC. In 2022, the median white family held $285,000 in wealth compared with $44,900 for the median Black family, according to the Federal Reserve. Black people are also more likely to be stopped, arrested and killed by police.
Naming anti-Blackness helps explain why Black people face distinct harms even within broader groups such as people of color. It also points to practices like hair discrimination, which laws such as the CROWN Act now ban in many states.