What is systemic racism? NAACP President Derrick Johnson
defined systemic racism, also called structural racism or institutional racism,
as "systems and structures that have procedures or processes that
disadvantages African Americans." https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/15/systemic-racism-what-does-mean/5343549002/
According to numerous measures – a disproportionately high prison
population, disparity in wealth, educational attainment, and family stability –
the black community is suffering. However, is there still a systemic plot to
keep blacks down? Although the media continues to make this charge, is there
evidence for it? Certainly, there had been. However, every law that had been
designed to discriminate against blacks has been struck down. I had worked for
the NYC Department of Probation for 15 years. Although it was clear that
people of color were disproportionately represented in the system, I did not
see any evidence of racism.
If anything, whites and Asians are being systematically
excluded by policies of diversity and affirmative action. Blacks can say racist
things against whites, things that whites cannot say without losing their job.
Recently, CNN’s Van Jones claimed that whites have a mental disease – no
outrage at all against his racist remark. One university just granted blacks
their request to have an all-black dorm and others are following. It is
unthinkable that such a request would have been granted to whites. Instead, it
would have been denounced as racist, as it should be!
The late Dr. James Cone had taught at Union
Theological Seminary for 46 years until his death. During this time, he
had made many racist statements against whites in his classes. I had gone to a
dinner honoring Cone about four years ago and heard some of his racist
statements firsthand, along with the unreserved approval of his seminary for
his racist rants. He had even been granted 13 honorary PHDs. Where is the
systemic racism?
Before you conclude that I must be a racist for denying
systemic racism in the USA, I’d like you to consider who is really a friend to
the black people – the one who validates and encourages their outrage or the
one who encourages them to see their situation as one without systemic
impediments; the one who tells you that you cannot make it in this “racist
society,” or the one who encourages you to take responsibility for your lives
and to stop blaming the system; the one who inflames you with
counter-productive rage, or the one who preaches the Biblical message of peace,
love, and forgiveness to assist your adjustment and progress.
I am not alone in this concern. Many thoughtful black
conservative scholars are saying the same things. Shelby Steele is a research
fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. In his book, White
Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights
Era, Steele argues that the black community now suffers more through
paternalistic programs and the victimization narrative than they do from their
Jim Crow legacy. However, black leaders have invested in this destructive
narrative:
·
Blacks, on the other hand, are very quick to see
racism in situations, even many where it's not there, because racism is our
power over whites. And so we tend to embrace it and see it. And if you want to
make many of our black leaders angry, just tell them that racism is not the
number problem that black Americans face.
According to Steele, times have changed. It is not racism
that is holding blacks back but the victimization narrative:
·
I absolutely, 100 percent believe that if you
want to do something in American society, whatever it may be--I'm not saying
you will not encounter any racism, but racism will not stop you. When I grew up
in segregation, racism cruelly constricted our lives and our opportunities, and
you could not do things that might want to do. Today, that's over. One of the
most remarkable things is how little we've appreciated the degree of freedom we
have as blacks.
If there is systemic racism, Steele would be campaigning
against it, and so would I. Even though people like Nat Turner had been
Steele’s role model, he now applauds this nation for the profound changes he
has experienced:
·
What I've encountered in my life, most often in
the white world, is good will, is people have who have wanted to help me. When
I was younger and starting a career, people who mentored me, who really felt it
was important to give me the best opportunity to pursue my dreams. And my sense
is that that's really been an experience for most blacks who have tried to
venture out and develop themselves.
·
One of the most remarkable things in all of
human history is the degree of moral evolution, that white Americans have made
from the mid-60s to this day. No group of people in history have morally
evolved away from a social evil that quickly and to that degree in this sort of
short span of time. And very often, in our calculations in thinking about race,
we don't give whites credit for that.
I think that it would bless both whites and blacks to become
aware of this. It would do wonders to improve race relations. It would go a
long way to counter the divisive narrative of the Mainstream Media, which reports
only on the oppression of people of color. Their narrative has no place
for the fact that whites are now killings themselves at a rate of almost three
times that of blacks. They ignore the fact that black on white crime has been variously
reported as six to eight times that of white on black crime, and many other
disparities reflecting the disproportionately great suffering of whites.
Anger is a fire that sucks to itself all the available
oxygen, consuming everything in its path. If seems that for political purposes,
the media and other informational sources want to keep the black people
inflamed with their one-sided Critical Theory narrative that everything in
this country is evil and needs to be replaced (the Cancel Culture).
According to Steele, there are strong political motivations
for not giving any credit to this nation:
·
We keep wanting to sort of keep them on the hook
as racist. But the fact is that whites see racism as a disgrace and something
that they would do almost anything not to be identified with.
Steele argues that there has been an unhealthy partnership
“between white guilt and the black power”:
·
…we have looked to whites so much in the last 40
years, in terms of doing things to help us advance in American life, that we
inadvertently put ourselves back in the position of being dependent on the very
people who oppressed us in the first place. One of my arguments in the book is
that's the dependency that we need to try very hard to break and, again, rely
much more on our own abilities and talents, which I think are considerable. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5385701
This had also been the message of the famous abolitionist
Frederick Douglass:
·
Everybody has asked the question. . ."What
shall we do with the Negro?" I have had but one answer from the beginning.
Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us.
Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own
strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and
disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the
tree in any way, except by nature's plan, and if they will not stay there, let
them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also.
All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone!
Was it a lack of compassion that had prompted Douglass’
words? No, but rather compassion itself! Is it our lack of compassion that many
of us want to challenge the victimization narrative? No! Instead, our nation is
still suffering because we have failed to heed Douglass’ advice.
There is nothing I want to see more than the Church united
in love, as our Lord had commanded:
·
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love
one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By
this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one
another.” (John 13:34–35)
Love must start with genuine forgiveness and with a heart
that wants nothing more than faithfulness to our Savior – The greatest of joys.
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