THE DIVIDE OVER “SYSTEMIC RACISM”

 

 

Does systemic racism still exist? CNN’s Chris Cuomo had a revealing conversation with Don Lemon about their common perception that blacks are still purposely being kept out of the system to their great detriment:

 

Lemon:  But the thing is, Chris, it does mean insurrection, and I don't mean -- I don't mean it in the way people -- let me -- it means insurrection when people get tired and if no one listens, then it fuels insurrection, do you understand what I'm saying?

 

Cuomo: Yes.

 

Lemon: After a while people say, okay, look, I'm tired of this. I'm tired of it and either you let me in, you understand me, I'm gonna force my way into the conversation, force my way into the system. I'm gonna demand that you let me into the house, meaning -- I'm talking about -- you get what I'm saying, the metaphorical house. And you're going to have to do it and people aren't going to like it. So why can't we all figure out how to do it now instead of an insurrection that happens because no one wants to change? https://townhall.com/columnists/christalgo/2020/06/04/the-woke-mob-is-dead-wrongliterally-n2570061

 

According to Lemon and Cuomo, the problem is in our “racist system.” Therefore, the system is guilty and must change, even if it requires insurrection, since the system is unwilling to budge on its own.

 

However, what changes are now needed? Better justice for blacks? Metro police departments have already largely bended to their demands. Many cities already have a majority of people-of-color on their police force. All the laws favoring racial discrimination have been struck down, often in favor of affirmative action requirements favoring blacks.

 

If blacks are being systematically excluded today, many whites don’t see it. If systemic racial injustice still prevails, we Christians must raise our voices against this injustice (James 4:17).  Truly, there is the appearances of racism on all fronts, but what makes this a systematic attempt to keep blacks down?

 

Yet, it is undeniable that blacks have the feeling of being systematically excluded, but what more can be done? Even after the trillions of dollars poured into entitlement programs and the election to office of many black mayors, the racial divisions are ostensibly worse.

 

Nevertheless, BLM continues to carry threatening placards, “No Justice, No Peace” and “White Silence is White Violence,” indicting whites who fail to acknowledge systemic racism and join the fight against it. If whites refuse on both accounts, BLM interprets their refusal as trying to maintain their “White Privilege.” This just heightens feelings of threat and alienation, forcing many into their tribal enclaves at a great cost to all of us.

 

For whatever the reasons might, whites also suffer, although their suffering is not broadly reported. White suicide rate is now almost three times as high as that of blacks. Whites are also victimized by black on white crime at a rate of six to eight times higher than white on black crime, according to FBI stats. Consequently, victimization is perceived on both sides.

 

We are divided by walls of conflicting experiences and perceptions. It feels as if we lack any common ground from which we can have an honest discussion. We need the courage to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), but instead honest and balanced exchanges are seldom seen in the media.

 

In Fault Lines, Professor and Pastor Voddie Baucham points out how risky these conversations can be. When whites doubt that present systemic racism is the cause of white-black disparities, they are charged as “racist”:

 

·       it is because you are a racist who wants to protect your power and keep those disparities in place. This has to be true because, if you were not racist, you would know that the cause of disparities is… racism. The news is replete with examples of people who have lost their jobs over this madness.

 

·       Kurt Beathard was the offensive coordinator for the Illinois State University football team. That is, until he found a BLM flyer on his office door and replaced it with a flyer of his own stating, “All Lives Matter to Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Beathard was fired within weeks. Professor Stephen Hsu was forced to resign from his position as vice president of research and innovation at Michigan State University over alleged “scientific racism.” His actual crime? Interviewing an expert on police shootings who debunked the CRT myths surrounding them. (Apparently, merely associating with someone who questions the narrative is tantamount to “scientific racism.”) Portland State University professor Bruce Gilley was subjected to international scrutiny and scorn after starting a “Critiques of BLM” reading group.

 

The divide has become trench warfare, and the opposition must be overcome by any means. Are the evident disparities due to racism? Are there other alternatives to the claims of systemic racism? Baucham answers affirmatively:

 

·       “The crucial question,” writes [Economist] Thomas Sowell, “is not whether evils exist but whether the evils of the past or present are automatically the cause of major economic, educational and other social disparities today.” In Sowell’s view, the fundamental problem is the assumption that “disparities are automatically somebody’s fault, so that our choices are either to blame society or to ‘blame the victim.’… Yet,” he asks, “whose fault are demographic differences, geographic differences, birth order differences or cultural differences that evolved over the centuries before any of us were born?”

 

Baucham reports that in June 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama gave a Father’s Day message at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago affirmed the existence of other factors that had accounted for the disparities:

 

·       “[I]f we are honest with ourselves,” he said, “we’ll admit that way too many fathers also are… missing from too many lives and too many homes.” He went on to say that fathers “have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.”

 

·       “We know the statistics—that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and twenty times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home, or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it.”

 

However, honesty and individual integrity have become endangered species. Is the problem in the “racist system,” which must be destroyed to achieve “justice?” Do we need an insurrection? The Leftist establishment continues to inflame those they deem as “oppressed” as the perpetual victims of the “white systemic racism,” as if the Leftists wanted to promote a race war – a Marxist ploy to foment revolution. However, the Bible regards this strategy as the deadly “wisdom of the world”:

 

·       Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:13–18)

 

The fruits of Marxism have long been evident. Consequently, it is no wonder that the Bible, and not Marxism, had once guided and inspired the most stable and prosperous nations.