Black activists and white progressives stress racism because it serves their own interests, not because it actually improves the station of blacks. Jason Riley
Systemic racism is a theoretical concept developed by sociologist Joe Feagin in his book, “Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, and Future Reparations.” Feagin’s theory is premised on his claim that the U.S. was founded as a racist society, and that racism is embedded in all social institutions, that gives an unjust amount of resources, rights, and power to whites while denying them to people of color.
If America is indeed infected with systemic racism who exactly are these systemic racists? Certainly not those pushing the narrative, or the cable news lefties who toss out the allegation with abandon, or the mandarins of Hollywood or the left-wing think tank with their phony studies and charts. And, of course, we have to exclude the Democratic establishment persistently leveraging identity politics and the professional celebs whose household recognition qualify them as authority figures, and the elites who live their pristine lives in gated communities, or the nation’s minorities who are spoon-fed this socialist nonsense day in and day out.
That only leaves the middle-class and working-class whites, already beleaguered economically by the hollowing out of the nation’s industrial base struggling to survive in the new service and high-tech environment. And now they have to worry about becoming the next Exhibit A in the elites’ persistent search for evidence of systemic racism.
This is scary stuff to people who just want to live their lives without being singled out and called to account for slipping into some hazardous lapse such as thinking that all lives matter or any other innocuous racial observation that never would have raised eyebrows among whites or blacks just a few years ago.
At one time systemic racism did exist in the U.S. but, The Civil Rights Movement, laws such as the Voting Rights Acts, the 14th Amendment and legal cases such as Brown v. Board of Education, were brought into existence to ensure equal treatment of all races. And while racism is not completely eradicated it is no longer systemic, nor has it been for decades in either society or corporate America.
It is true some whites hate blacks, but that is matched by some blacks hating whites, though the latter cannot officially be called “racism”, because according to the left only whites can be racist. It is also true that we haven’t achieved equal economic outcomes for every American of any race. That’s not how the real world works. People who see disparate outcomes as proof of “endemic racism” are indulging in a conspiracy theory.
Glenn Loury, professor of economics at Brown University gave a lecture at the University of Colorado, Boulder, on February 8, 2021, a copy of which was published under the title Unspeakable Truths About Racial Inequality in America, in the Washington Examiner. Professor Loury said that as a black man he felt compelled to represent the interest of his people, to speak such truths as he was given to know.
According to Loury, claims by the left that white supremacy, implicit bias and old-fashioned anti-black racism are sufficient to account for black disadvantage is a bluff that relies on cancel culture. Either you agree with them, or they cancel you because you must be a racist, you must believe that something is intrinsically wrong with black people.
The racism argument seldom goes into cause and effect but rather asserts shadowy causes that are never fully specified, let alone demonstrated. We are all just supposed to know that it’s the fault of white privilege furthered by an ideology of white supremacy. It explains everything, it explains nothing.
Loury ends his lecture with a final unspeakable truth. “If we blacks want to walk with dignity, it we want to be truly equal, then we must realize that white people cannot give us equality. Equality of dignity, of standing, of honor, of security in one’s position in society, of being able to command the respect of others is not something that can be handed over. Rather, it is something that one has to wrest from a cruel and indifferent world with hard work, with our bare hands – we have to make ourselves equal – no one can do it for us.
“There is nothing white liberals fear more than a God fearing, educated, black man. No my friends…there is no systemic racism in America…just Systemic “Marxist Elitism”…an EVIL that uses, abuses and discards anyone for POWER.” Burgess Owens
Source: What Is ‘Systemic Racism,’ Really? By Robert W. Merry, The American Conservative; The ‘Systemic Racism’ Myth by Steve Tobak; There Is No Such Thing As “Systemic Racism” Against Blacks by William Briggs; Systemic Racism and Other conspiracy Theories by John Zmirak, the Stream; Unspeakable Truths About Racial Inequality in America, by Professor Glenn Loury, The Washington Examiner
