Please tell me exactly what "Systemic Racism" is! I'm very serious....

I fully expect to get kicked in the guts by even asking this, or accused of all kinds of deceit, but I really and truly do not (NOT) understand what people mean when they charge that American society is one that is saturated in a syndrome they call "Systemic Racism".

I googled "Systemic Racism", and the number #2 link was to a story in USA Today entitled, "What Is Systemic Racism, Anyway?". It was written by Andrew Koppelman, who is the John Paul Stevens Professor of Law and professor of political science at Northwestern University. Dr. Koppelman is the recipient of the 2015 Walder Award for Research Excellence.

What puzzled me even more than I already was, were paragraphs in the article like this:

"Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield writes in The Wall Street Journal that the phrase incoherently 'describes a society that is so little racist that no one can respectably advocate racism, yet so much racist that every part of it is soaked with racism,' leaving us with 'the paradox of a racist society without racists.'" Link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opin...c-racism-how-really-define-column/5845788002/ . The rest of the article points to suppositions that are just as vague and, uh, speculative....

Next, Wikipedia defines the term as “the formalization of a set of institutional, historical, cultural and interpersonal practices within a society that more often than not puts one social or ethnic group in a better position to succeed, and at the same time disadvantages other groups in a consistent and constant manner that disparities develop between the groups over a period of time.” BUT EXACTLY WHAT ARE THESE SUPPOSED TO BE?

We made the United States an officially 'color-blind' nation with our Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making ALL CITIZENS TOTALLY EQUAL BEFORE THE LAW! So, what is all this big pandemonium now, over 55 years later, about some kind of "Systemic Racism" that supposedly is so deeply-entrenched and all-pervading in our nation.

I genuinely, and most sincerely do not understand this, and my sense is that many in the Center and on the Right don't understand these accusations, either. Can anyone explain "Systemic Racism" so that it is intelligible to us, if indeed it does exist?

If we're going to continue to endure more rioting, arson, looting, pillaging, and other violence on a continuing basis in our cities, can't we at least get an accurate, focused understanding of what exactly the rioters are rioting against?!

 

This is almost as hilarious as it is very revealing! Not even one (ONE) reply...?

So -- NOBODY can even express an opinion about what this elusive "Systemic Racism" actually is...?

As the Legolas character said famously in "Fellowship of the Ring", "Why doesn't that surprise me...."

 

the 0 replies are due to doubt you really care cos google will overload with US History and current events detaining it all

 

Do you have an opinion? Obviously not. Can you write even one sentence in which you can describe, factually, what "Systemic Racism" actually is? Don't feel bad... neither can anyone else.

But the country will go on 'chasing its tail' about this obviously nonexistent "Systemic Racism" because it agitates constantly for the agenda of the hyperliberal, America-hating Left....

-- "Yeah, go for it -- even if you have to make the whole damn thing up!"

 

All those statues of Confederate generals. That is systemic racism.

I appreciate your sincerity here, but your questions probably can't be sufficiently answered by white people.

Biden mentioned his mother the other day. She used to tell him to put himself in the other person's shoes, if only for a moment. Imagine you are black, and every day you go to work in a building named after a man who fought a war to keep you in chains.

Statues were removed, names are being changed, but the culture that permitted these remains, as it does after laws were changed in 1964.

 

America is suddenly doing rather fine, can't you feel the joy in the air? it's really an amazing time for the entire world to enjoy.
you can claim or deny all you want but the horrors magnified by the last 4yrs are being undone and will be removed from society.

 

OK, I will try to be fair, because I sense that you are, too.

After the Civil War there was an enormous amount of residual bitterness in the South against the North. The South had been largely destroyed, and the travesty that persisted through the 'Reconstruction' period only further alienated Southerners, most of whom never owned a slave, but who fought and died by the tens of thousands for their concept of states' rights, as guaranteed by the 10th Amendment to the Constitution.

They revered their champions and heroes and honored them with statues, nearly all of which were erected over a hundred years ago! But, yes, they were put in place largely as an expression of still-smoldering anger and bitterness at the Civil War itself and what was inflicted on Southerners by the North afterward for over a decade afterward!

Fast-forward to 1964 and 1965 -- a hundred years AFTER the last slave had been emancipated! We very properly put the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act into LAW, and that was a very good thing! At last, ALL American citizens were guaranteed to be EQUAL BEFORE THE LAW!

Now, here we are over 55 years after that, but we have people seriously bellyaching about "Systemic Racism" in the United States...? Very honestly, I do not (NOT) see it! Many of those old statues you mentioned are gone now -- but when will delusions about "Systemic Racism" be removed?

 

I, as a VERY white and hardcore (forever recovering) racist it's more than plain to my eye, and I know why others deny.

 

Systemic Racism is racism of the gaps. It exists between the spaces of the places where racism can't be found. Didn't hear back from your job interview? Racism. Got shot down by the cute bartender when you asked her her sign? Definitely racism. Stub your toe in the dark and can't figure out what it was you kicked? Probably racism.

 

Like I said, talk to some black people. It's hard to see something that doesn't affect you.

Racial profiling, whether you agree with it or not, is an element of systemic racism. This practice leads to events like George Floyd and Brionna Taylor. Those that murdered Ahmed Arbury are just straight up haters, but one is an ex- police officer.

Laws are good and necessary, but racism exists in the minds of people, not the law library. When enough of those people gain enough control of the system, the racism becomes systemic.

 

Oh, good! Then perhaps you can tell all of us 'knuckle-draggers' exactly WHAT "Systemic Racism" is...?

You may have had 'issues' with your own personal racism in the past, and I'm happy that you have resolved them, but please continue now to tell us what in the SYSTEM of the United States is 'systematically' racist? Thank you, and, congratulations on your personal achievement!

 

was that racism?

 

Symbolic(as is the idea that slavery was predominately the reason for the war. It wasn't(despite contorting the declarations to make it seem otherwise.) The civil war was one of finance, without the gin and cotton trade the South was impoverished(as it was during the era of Reconstruction.). The Northern abolitionists could have offered financial assistance(and thus avoided the whole thing) but that bright idea only came towards the very end of the civil war and before Lincoln could fix the problems he largely created himself, he got assassinated.

Abraham Lincoln's actual political record, when we're removed from our school books is closer to Bush than that of an American Great. I hold that he started the war, and inevitably as a result created some of the current divisional circumstances. My position towards the Founders is that they had incredibly difficult circumstances politically and rationally, as the freshly born union could not decide all of a sudden "Hey, this system that's profitable for half the country is immoral and amoral so we're going to get rid of it."

But even with my sympathy towards the Founders, Abe's situation was totally avoidable and he botched it completely. And we know that it would improve since today 98%(it should be 100% but whatever) of people denounce and reject slavery. If the North said "We know this will be financially hard, here a carrot." There's no civil war.

This is because the abolitionists were arrogant. They were on the "right side of history" so **** the idea of the union, even if we give it word speak in a speech.

 

someone insisting the obvious be pointed out to them is a good place to start.

 

The ex-policeman who caused the death of George Floyd has been properly charged with crime(s) and will stand trial! That is the right thing to do, and if he is found guilty, he should be punished exactly as prescribed by law. That's the way this country works.

But what evidence is there that that the entire United States is somehow 'systematically' racist?

The only 'systematic' racism I see is that which created "Affirmative Action" -- which is reverse-discrimination against White people. And the other big one is the "set-aside" program the Federal Government has run for decades in which only 'minority-owned' businesses are even allowed to submit a bid for many different offerings involving awards of Federal contracts for millions of dollars. How many people are even aware of that? Often a company that could have fulfilled a contract's requirements better and cheaper was totally excluded from even being able to compete for the government's business. Is that 'systematically racist'...?

 

It takes a dog to hear a dog whistle.

 

Basically it's the idea that the system itself incorporates racism, or that the system produces a racist inequality. The idea of Systemic Racism isn't new, it's codified in US laws as a way racism can be propagated. Think of it like monopoly where one person gets all the money and everyone else gets nothing. Sure, a person with no money could theoretically win, but the odds of it happening are slim to none because the rules of game won't let them win.

I'm actually trying to play a game with this idea in mind to teach it to my students. Try to make it with dolls. I will let you know how it goes.

 

This is exactly the kind of reply that reinforces the skepticism of many of us that some kind of mythical "Systemic Racism" exists at all!

I've asked this poster three times to explain, even very briefly, exactly WHAT this "Systemic Racism" is, and so far he's posted nothing but vaporous, subjective musings which contain nothing of any definition or usefulness.

If "Systemic Racism" is SO "obvious", then why can't it be described in any kind of tangible, empirical context?!

 

how does an admitted racist who plowed his vehicle through a crowd of protesters to ''give them an attitude adjustment'' get set free?
answer; by a sympathetic white judge. just like in the good old days!

 

do you hear it? can it go louder?

 

Uh, are you talking about this? Link: https://www.wbtv.com/2019/06/28/man-who-plowed-into-charlottesville-crowd-sentenced-life-prison/

"James Alex Fields Jr. was sentenced Friday in the attack that killed one person and injured more than two dozen others. He apologized before the judge handed down his life without parole sentence."

Want to try again, or is that all you've got...?

 

no

 

Bret Weinstein proposed an interesting evolutionary theory regarding this phenomenon.

There is an evolutionary drive to recognize environmental patterns in order to acquire resources. As resource within the environment becomes scarce, the definition of the resource expands and the detection pattern becomes more rigorous. He gave the example of the procurement of food. Standing in a large field of strawberries you can be quite selective regarding the definition of a good strawberry. You pick and eat the ones that are large and red and juicy. The effort to locate them is minimal. As the strawberries are depleted, you expand your selection to strawberries that are small, or have green spots, and they become harder to find in the environment. You become an expert at locating hard to find strawberries.

The trouble occurs when the strawberries are completely depleted. It's entirely possible for a strawberry expert who's been evolutionarily programmed to locate difficult to find strawberries to be convinced of the existence of strawberries in a field that contains none.

 

Agreed, which shows the law itself does not erase racism.

Well, what I'm seeing here is white grievance. IMO, anyone on the white grievance train cannot understand systemic racism. Ask some black people.

 

The amplitude of the signal is not the issue. It's the frequency. I can't hear a 0hz signal. Sorry.