I think this is a combination of classism and racism to be honest. Getting out of poverty is quite hard in the US. There is not a lot of support for poor people. Thus many black people get stuck in poverty for historical reasons.

Poor people will naturally be overrepresetend on all sorts of bad statistics, and this further fuels the image of black people.

I mean, I see how this affects me when I am visiting the US. If I go in a bad neighbourhood and there are gangs hanging out on the corners, then most of them are likely to be black people. That reinforces a negative stereotype of African-Americans.

I think it is very hard to change that perception and stereotype, without doing something with poverty, because the stereotype has of course some root in reality.

I grew up in the 80s in Norway with shows like Bill Cosby and later Fresh Prince in Bal Air. Hence even if there was basically no black people in the society I lived in, I saw plenty of black people on TV. I am sure it helps, but you really need class mates, friends etc.

And I also don't think all systemic racism is caused by individuals being racist. A system can disadvantage minorities even if individuals are not racist.

E.g. I remember taking part in hiring for a job once. Who we hired would have major impact on the project I worked on. You wanted to get someone onboard which will work out. You don't want to take risks. Anyone who is an unknown quantity is at that point at a disadvantage. I remember ruling out some people of minority background because I perceived them as too risky. Not knowing their culture and personalities well enough, I was unable to predict how they would handle the work. People closer to me culturally were easier to judge.

This decision had nothing to do with me viewing other people as inferior to those of my own culture. It is just that we easily get trapped in these kinds of considerations. I have often tried to reflect upon how we could have helped minorities to get hired.

Either companies have to deliberate decide they want to promote minorities or e.g. government might have to give support. E.g. pay for a week employment to check out how well minorities work out.