
“It always starts with slavery,” says Caroline Bailey, an assistant professor at O’Neill IUPUI.
Bailey studies the ways in which historical institutions and practices, such as slavery may be related to disparities within the modern criminal justice system and school settings—from race-based victimization to school suspensions and punishments. When she looks at her research and the problems she’s working to solve, she says each one can be traced back to slavery.
“The effects of slavery are everlasting because we, as a country, have never really reconciled it,” she adds. “To understand the disparities of today, we have to go back to the origins. I think that slavery provides a good insight into understanding modern society, especially as we attempt to understand the disparate treatment of Black people.”
Bailey says oftentimes, people tend to remove that impact because the institution of slavery was more than 150 years ago. But she’s quick to remind them that her own parents lived through the Civil Rights Era—just one generation removed—which was a direct result of the fallout from slavery.