Simon mentioned and acknowledged that in the past there were racist laws but that since these laws have been dismantled there no longer exists any form of systematic racism. This is not accurate.
Laws can change overnight but hearts do not. The racist hearts that enacted those racists laws still existed long after the racist laws themselves were gone. Furthermore, laws have a certain impact that doesn’t disappear overnight.
Let’s start with slavery. YES, I’m starting there. For hundreds of years, white people accumulated wealth while this country was being built up on the free labor of black slaves. Wealth, mainly land, is generational and is passed down. Black people had no land to pass down from slavery.
But slavery was abolished so black people were then able to work for themselves and build themselves up!
Not exactly! Once slaves were free where did they go? They owned no land. Ironically, in many ways they were worse off because now they were no longer someone’s property and were able to be arrested and killed for even the slightest (often perceived) offenses by groups such as the newly formed KKK and former slave patrol groups (of which our modern day police are direct descendants).
Despite this, black people worked hard to try and build and accumulate something for themselves. There was even a community in Oklahoma named the Black Wall Street in 1921 because of the number of wealthy black people who built up a prosperous city for themselves. But what happened? A white mob burned the city to the ground during the now infamous massacre. Black soldiers who fought in WWII alongside their white countrymen returned home to find that they were not able to secure the same benefits under the new GI bill which included educational opportunities, low interest, zero down payment loans for houses and businesses. This is another example of black people being denied the opportunity to accumulate wealth. Wealth is the key term here because it is generational and is why we talk about racism as SYSTEMIC.
Schools were segregated and access to equal education was non existent on a broad level until the late 50s. But even AFTER that, prejudicial ATTITUDES still prevented true access to equal education.
Redlining is a great modern day example of racism at a systemic level. Governments have redlined many mostly predominantly black neighborhoods as high risk areas which makes it more difficult to have access to fresh food at a local supermarket, secure better rates for loans,
or even be flat out denied banking and financial services. Redlining affects a person’s direct access to health care. Redlining affects how public schools are funded. A school redlined to a poor predominantly black neighborhood won’t get the same funding from taxes as a school in a wealthy neighborhood. This leads to more crowded classrooms, more underpaid teachers, and less access to quality textbooks, materials, and extracurricular activities. An overall poorer quality education.
This is why racism is systemic. Sure, the KKK and like minded individuals still exist. But racism today is less an individual problem. There is no one person to point the finger to and this is why the subject is often so hard to have.
Also, there is an argument to be made that this is not a race issue but a poverty issue; yet you only have to scroll up to see why poverty issues and race issues are intertwined.
Now, of course, there are plenty of examples of black people who have achieved much success despite these hurdles. That is fine and great. But that does not prove that the hurdles are not there.
And, of course, there are lazy people who conform to all the stereotypes. And there are people who make poor decisions in life. This too does not take away from the facts of structural and institutional racism.
The only way to progress is to ACKNOWLEDGE these facts and collectively work to change things.
And I haven’t even begun to touch on the issue of implicit bias (which we ALL have regardless of race) and police brutality ( an issue that is related to but distinct from systemic racism.)
