Monday, August 2, 2021

VODDIE BAUCHAM, POLICE, SYSTEMIC RACISM, AND CRITICAL THEORY

 


 

If systemic racism exists, then it is our responsibility to raise our voices against it, as BLM banners imply: “White Silence is White Violence.”
 
One of the charges that fuel the move to defund police is that the police discriminate and even hunt down blacks, but do the statistics support this claim?
 
It doesn’t seem so, at least according to the sentiments of most blacks. In support of this, Voddie Baucham, a black scholar, has written:
 
·       According to recent Gallup polls, most black Americans (81 percent) want police to spend the same amount of or more time in their area as before protests broke out in 2020. This resonates with my own experience growing up in a high-crime area. I remember days when I had to walk through territory that was unfamiliar or unwelcoming. I always had my head on a swivel, looking for gangbangers who might want to jam me up. Like all young black men in my neighborhood, I had nightmares about being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time…(Baucham, “Fault Lines,” 167)
 
In contrast, Critical Race Theorists (CRTs) allege that whites are invariably racist “oppressors,” even if they don’t recognize it, and that racism is engrained in the fabric of the American society - guilty without any hope of being proven innocent.
 
·        This is the analytical lens that CRT uses in examining existing power structures. CRT identifies that these power structures are based on white privilege and white supremacy, which perpetuates the marginalization of people of color. (“What is Critical Race Theory?” UCLA School of Public Affairs, Critical Race Studies, https://spacrs.wordpress.com/what-is-critical-race-theory)
 
CRT starts out by presupposing that all systems are the attempts of the ruling class to maintain power and control (“hegemony”). From this presupposition, CRT concludes that the whites are systemically trying to exclude the blacks, even if they don’t realize it. However, according to Baucham, the evidence against systemic racism is impressive:
 
·       According to federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, in interracial violence involving blacks and whites, white perpetrators account for 15 percent of the cases while black perpetrators account for 85 percent. In other words, far from there being an epidemic of whites “hunting down innocent, unarmed black men,” when it comes to interracial violence, black people are overwhelmingly more likely to victimize white people than the other way around. (Baucham, 166)
 
·       A police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black assailant than an unarmed black man is to be killed by a cop. (Baucham, 166)
 
Who then is exercising the power? Do police murder blacks disproportionately? Baucham has written:
 
·       I reject the idea that America is “characterized by racism,” or that racism is an unavoidable byproduct of our national DNA. In fact, I believe America is one of the least racist countries in the world. (201)
 
Baucham is joined by other marginalized black conservatives. However, to deny systemic racism, especially as a black man, is risky. It means he will be maligned. Baucham presents CRT’s attack strategy:
 
·       Systemic racism is the cause of disparities. If you doubt that, 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.
 
In the case of black conservatives, they are discredited as “uncle Toms” and” traitors.” Likewise, CRT warns all against opposing their racist narrative:
 
·       Don’t “whitesplain.” Do not explain racism to a POC. Do not explain how the microaggression they just experienced was actually just someone being nice. Do not explain how a particular injustice is more about class than race. It’s an easy trap to fall into, but you can avoid it by maintaining a posture of active listening. (“Be the Bridge” Facebook group)
 
Consequently, if you perform a “nice” act, you are a racist; if you don’t, you are a racist. For the “oppressor,” there is only one appropriate response - shut up and listen. If you protest, this automatically proves you are a racist.
 
Baucham lists some examples of those who have lost their jobs for simply resisting this narrative:
 
·       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. (155)
 
Police, blacks and whites, are also victims:
 
·       A 2015 Washington Post analysis found that “511 officers [were] killed in felonious incidents and 540 offenders from 2004 to 2013. Among the total offenders, 52 percent were white, and 43 percent were black.” Ambush killings of officers are nearly evenly split racially: “There were 304 officers killed in ambush attacks from 1980 to 2013, with 371 offenders involved in those deaths. The percentage of black and white offenders in ambushes were about the same: 44 percent were white, and 43 percent were black.” (51)
 
Since only 13% of the population is black, they are represented disproportionately higher than whites. Why then does CRT maintain that the whites are still the racists? Many point to Marxism as the culprit. Their strategy has always been to delegitimize the present system as “oppressive” and to replace it with a Marxist system.
 
Let’s return to the central question of systemic racism - “Are blacks killed disproportionately by police?”
 
·       The best research on the topic of fatal officer-involved shootings (FOIS) has been clear, as were the findings of Harvard economist Roland G. Fryer Jr. in a forthcoming study. “On the most extreme use of force, FOIS,” he writes, “we find no racial difference in either the raw data or when contextual factors are taken into account.” Fryer was actually surprised by his findings. (Baucham, 48)
 
·       Meanwhile, a National Academy of Sciences study ignited controversy when its authors proclaimed, “We find no evidence of anti-Black or anti-Hispanic disparities across shootings, and White officers are not more likely to shoot minority civilians than non-White officers.” (Baucham, 48)
 
Our communities and churches are divided over the question of the existence of any systemic attempt to kill or keep blacks down. However, according to Baucham and many others, the evidence for its existence appears to be lacking. However, such claims are promoted by CRT and even the press to the detriment of the nation.
 
Instead of helping the black community, these groups continue to promote the idea that blacks are still the victims for their own political purposes. Instead, my deepest hope is reflected by the prayer of our Lord:
 
·       “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17:20-23)
 
However, CRT seeks the very opposite thing!

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