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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