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Racism + Black Lives Matter
Do Your Own Homework White People
Digging Deeper To Understand Systemic Racism
From the New Orleans school desegregation crisis (1960), when white schoolchildren went on strike to protest the federal government’s order to desegregate New Orleans elementary schools.What is systemic racism? Where is it showing its effects? Why do Blacks still believe in systemic racism? Is systemic racism actually real? Can you give me an example of what systemic racism is? How are Black people still complaining about racism when we have laws and protections in place? Do you genuinely feel like things are how they used to be decades ago? Your people have made so much progress! I’m having a hard time believing systemic racism is still a thing. Black people are always complaining; take your life into your own hands for a chance. You already have affirmative action…
When a person conveys to me they do not believe in systemic racism, they can’t fathom why Black people are still “complaining,” or they still need a better understanding of what systemic racism is, they are acknowledging not only their ignorance but also a choice they made; a choice to ignore facts, their surroundings, and the way society has functioned since the beginning of time.
Recently, I received two responses to two articles I wrote:
And Here Is ONE of The Texts I Sent
Part II: My White Friend Doesn’t Believe In Systemic Racism
What’s happened since our text
The first response gave me hope, but the second response made me pause. At this point, what else has to happen to make people understand what systemic racism is, and if people are genuinely interested, why not go the extra mile to figure it out for themselves? But here, let me help you anyways and provide some examples of what modern systemic racism looks like.
Modern Examples of Systemic Racism
I know people always scream to show them facts, so here’s some data for all the Type A “Jesus show me a sign” type people who need to see “facts” and “data” for an already extremely conspicuous issue.
You can tell a lot about racism if you look at financial statistics. For the love of money is the root of all evil, and slavery was fueled by greed. Racism is ultimately fueled by greed (e.g., if you do worse, I do better). The facts that are about to be shown are f*cking disgraceful, but they are all evident signs of systemic racism.
One of my favorite facts to point out is that a white man can get away with no consequences for raping a woman, but a black man will get 20+ years to life for the same offense.
You have people like Harvey Weinstein, who abused women for years, and it takes forever to bring him down finally. Then you have a black person do something worthy of prison time, who quickly gets sentenced to prison; Bill Cosby was an anomaly.
Prisons are disproportionately made up of people of color, and many of them shouldn’t even be there either because they’re innocent or the end of their sentence was long overdue. If you don’t believe me, visit some of your local prisons and see who’s there and listen to their stories.
Systemic racism is like cancer. Permutations continue to form to ensure racism – and essentially slavery – stay alive due to capitalistic and white supremacist reasons. Blacks in America were to remain and always be second-class citizens. Here is the evolution of slavery and racism for minorities – specifically black individuals: Slavery → convict leasing → disproportionate mass incarceration of minorities for minor offenses→ GPS monitoring, house arrest, ankle/wrist monitors
Modern Examples of Systemic Racism:
Two Responses From Two White Men
Response #1 – What Is Systemic Racism?
“I am not argumentative when I ask this, [but] would you please give me a definition for “systemic racism?” For example, certain blacks were [considered] legal property and retained to work as slaves before the Civil War. After the Civil War, blacks, although freed from slavery, were physically prevented from registering to vote. [But] this nonsense was eliminated with the 1960’s Civil Rights laws.
Today, all whites, in general, are accused of secretly, unconsciously being racist and preventing blacks from getting their fair share of opportunities. As far as I know, there are no laws at the state or federal level preventing blacks from equal opportunity. On the contrary, there are strict laws preventing discrimination based on color.
I can’t read minds; few people can. Is systemic racism something people are thinking? You may tell me I am not black, so I can’t understand systemic racism; I trust you believe what you believe. Your thoughts are yours to have.
You may use the example of the police killing; police killed about 400 whites in 2019 and about 300 blacks. Blacks are 13% of the population; whites are about 70%. Is it systemic racism because more blacks are killed proportionally by police?
How about voting? That’s in the news a lot. Apparently, blacks are prevented from voting because they don’t have an ID. What kind of a person doesn’t have an ID these days? You need an ID to function in society, and by the way, they are free to get from a state agency. Is voting inconvenient? Perhaps it is, is that a good reason not to vote?
Is systemic racism a daily dose of whites insulting blacks daily? I haven’t seen that in my area, but it may be happening elsewhere.
Systemic racism has become a phrase that has been used as a catchall for several things without any real meaning. Like it’s systemic racism because I say it is. It’s a concept without a reality. A weapon without a form. A convenient expression to describe everything wrong in America.
I am open to a definition of systemic racism, hopefully, so it can be prevented.”
Response # 2 – Systemic Racism Exists & I’m White
“I honestly don’t think you need any black friends to understand systemic racism. I am a native Norwegian, and I am not even living in the US. I have zero black friends. I never had a black teacher or professor. I only had some black colleagues for a short time throughout my career. Yet, I understand the issue. Why? Because I read, and I care to try to understand. The book Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh was the first eye-opener for me to understand the situation for African-Americans in the US. Before that, I think the Wire’s TV series was a way for me to get introduced to the challenges.
Of course, both of these books deal with extreme cases like crime and gangs. But it does tell stories about how normal people, who did nothing but grow up poor, get sucked into horrible situations where things like the police and justice system contribute to making the problem worse.
Perhaps it actually helps to be an outsider and not live in the US. For instance, it seems that many white Americans are de-sensitized in viewing the brutality of American police officers against black people. I find that when talking to Americans, they view this behavior as very normal and warranted.
While, e.g., us in Scandinavia, the behavior we see from American police is just unthinkable. It is just so profoundly aggressive and brutal. And I know when many of us have visited the US, we have been quite shocked by how the US police operate.
It has led me down the rabbit hole of trying to understand how this came about. And I see that a lot of American police traditions, especially in the South, came from deliberate attempts to keep black people down. The dehumanization of black people is evident when you witness them get manhandled and thrown around by cops in America.
It is shocking to see how cops are called to throw around black teenagers, even girls, for being slightly stubborn or difficult in class. And this wasn’t students presenting any physical danger to anyone; yet, they get handled in the most physically brutal way by cops. Bringing in cops to a school like that would be just unthinkable here.
I suspect that the problem for white people in America is that the American debate is so polarized and many white people feel attacked and thus lash out rather than genuinely trying to understand the situation. But I try to use gender discrimination as an example. You can have discrimination against women at the same time as it happens to men.
Women are not taken as seriously, are more likely to hit a glass ceiling, [their] technical expertise [is] often not as valued, the humility of women [is] often seen as an indicator of not being knowledgable on a subject, etc. At the same time, there are situations where men can be at a disadvantage. [For example] because men are more likely to abuse women, men in abusive relationships often have a much harder time getting taken seriously. Child custody can be hard when the mother is actually the bad parent and not the father. You see how a guy hitting a woman in public will get an immediate reaction, while a woman hitting a man in public will more likely get chuckles.
But none of that suggests that working towards more equality for women isn’t important. Just like white people experiencing aspects of racism doesn’t invalidate the struggle black people face.
Also, some people exaggerate racism, but that doesn’t invalidate the struggle against racism or mean it isn’t real. Many seemed focused on looking for those who make exaggerated claims about racism as some kind of validation that racism isn’t a problem at all. Many people simply look for the comfortable answers they want to hear.
And finally, maybe it is easier for me as an outsider to see it because I don’t have skin in the game. I don’t feel any responsibility for the racism that exists in America. At the same time, I suppose many white Americans don’t want to acknowledge it because it would imply that they are also partially to blame.”
More Reads On Systemic Racism
Correcting Systemic Racism Doesn’t Have To Be Difficult
5 Things To Bring Change & Help
My Personal Experience &
Here’s My Letter To The Executive Team @ Carter-
My Response to Three White
The University of Pennsylvania Misuses Dead & Unidentified Black Child For “Educational” Purposes
No. Just No. In fact, H*ll No!
Feminism Initially Excluded Black Women
An Alternative View On The Feminist
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