The Blind Spots of Systemic Racism

America’s racial caste system

I read online on social media (someone I know personally wrote it) recently that the problem in America is the “race hucksters or race hustlers.” This person, who was outraged, argued that the real issue in American race relations wasn’t white supremacy in America but those who used “race” to divide, usually liberals and African American leaders. It was similar to a charge made against President Barack Obama. Obama, it is said by many Americans, usually of so-called conservative ideals, ruined his presidency when he played the race card.

Both of these examples are people getting upset about anything other than racism itself. If only these “race hucksters” would go away, all would be well. My general response is America created this racial caste system rooted in white supremacy by choice and it does exist. It was not created by race hucksters.

But like the latest debate on this issue, I let it go mostly. If you cannot acknowledge basic facts about American social and political history, you have a blind spot. Like those cars on your left or right that you can’t see sometimes when you drive. You try to change lanes, and then the driver blows their horn.

“Sorry,” you say quietly, “I didn’t see you.”

Presidential white supremacy

Perhaps a few quotes from American history will help first of all to explain how things got so bad:

“blacks…are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind.” — (Thomas Jefferson)

“I am not, nor even have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races…and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.” — (Abraham Lincoln)

“a perfectly stupid race can never rise to a very high plane; the negro, for instance, has been kept down as much by lack of intellectual development as by anything else.” — (Rutherford B. Hayes)

The three quotes are from three American presidents. And two of these three have national monuments in Washington D.C. not to mention their faces are on our currency. They are political icons. But all three of these presidents are describing the basis for white supremacy in America. They are stating the beliefs that created the caste system in America. They didn’t make up these beliefs. These ideals were passed down to them. And then they passed them down to millions of people who passed it down and so on and so on. For most of American history, most Americans lived in a country built upon the foundation of these beliefs. These beliefs might be believed by fewer Americans, but they have been institutionalized now. That is why there is such a ferocious backlash against the 1619 Project and Critical Race Theory.

Racial blindness is an excuse for bigotry

Yet, mostly what is done is assertions that is there is no such system. And anyone saying there is one or reacting to America’s racial history and present is likely a race huckster. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was a race huckster, according to these kinds of individuals. Angela Davis, the revolutionary intellectual, is one as well. So were (and is) the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton, the Black Lives Matter protestors, and countless others, including many white liberals. I had an African American friend tell me once he could handle racism, but he could not handle what Jackson and Sharpton were doing.

“What was that?” I asked.
“They are race hucksters,” he said.

I chuckled.

Is racism (white supremacy) a figment of our imagination?

According to the most recent person I interacted with, white supremacy is primarily exaggerated.

Black Lives Matter? These are foolish young people protesting against a ghost of a system.

This thing about redlining and wealth inequality — That was a long time ago. That is just an excuse to be lazy. Work hard and get something. America is the greatest country in the world.

In other words, systemic racism does not exist according to a lot of Americans, or, more the other angle: and even if it does, it works for me, so who cares? Carry on.

This is willful blindness. It is like saying the problem isn’t that toxic waste dump in the neighborhood making everyone sick, it is the people who keep pointing at the dump and saying, fix that. Or the woman who writes letters every week to her local elected official complaining that it is making her children sick. Can you be quiet, lady?

Systemic racism is as real as it’s ever been

But fact is systemic racism is real. Even the President, Joe Biden admitted as much recently. On February 16, 2023, he signed an executive order admitting that systemic racism is real and that his administration was committed to doing something about it. He had already been speaking out against it and using the term “systemic racism” for months by that time.

And the NFL, the National Football League, the most American of institutions finally admitted as much. In June 2020, the league’s commissioner, Roger Goddell actually used the term “systemic racism,” and committed the NFL to work against it in society and within the NFL. The NFL spoke with money too — $250 million dollars. That is more than they spend on promoting the military and programs addressing breast cancer.

Systemic racism is not real? You are blind. Some of us aren’t.

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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