'Systemic Racism' is the answer when the problem is not segregation or discrimination. Look at this city of Jackson MS and look at its priorities. What did / does it do to attract business and internal tax revenue? What favoritism is evident in the spending of the city's coffers? Is that spending biased towards any identifiable group(s)?
How are the contractors vetted or measured? Is there a history of matching political contributions for contracts received? It is human nature to want to 'reward' your supporters but can it be done WHILE still getting the work done? Making a generic accusation of 'systemic racism' is a modern cop-out and a referral to "residents, politicians, experts and activists" is both insufficient and useless.
Reuters is the UK equivalent of the domestic AP, a news aggregator who follows the progressive zeitgeist.
Cities run by black democrats are almost always corrupt.