Stop Trying to Explain Away Racism

When we talk about systemic issues of racism there is a lot of explaining away. Mostly individually. Let's break some of them down. Blacks killed by cops, more whites are killed. The fact that more blacks are incarcerated, they commit more crimes. The fact blacks and Hispanics are more likely to receive non-lethal violence, they commit more crimes. Blacks pulled over more often, must speed more. When blacks aren't pulled over as often at night, crickets. Blacks are on more likely to be arrested on marijuana charges while usage is almost equal, that's explained by the neighborhood they live in. The fact blacks serve on average 19% more than whites for the same crimes with the same record, we need to dig deeper.

That's just the law enforcement. I have studies for all of these we can look at. Some are more locality focused, some are nationwide. All have been "debunked" individually by people usually speaking about how the black community is poorer or missing fathers. But it ignores the fact that all of the earlier listed studies could be a factor. That the fact that racism and discrimination were legal until 1968 could be a factor. The fact redlining occurred in cities to determine, loans and housing opportunities could be a factor. That it wasn't until the 80's that redlining by banks was truly confronted, that it took until 1999 to create parity in farm lending.

I keep hearing racism is illegal and we need to get past it. That we have equality in opportunity. That there is nothing racist about our systems. If that was the case there wouldn't be so many disparities. The sheer number of these disparities mean something in the system is weighted against a minority for their race. 

None of what I've mentioned above has occurred in a vacuum. Decisions in policy made as late as the 90's with crime are as relevant to the discussion as generations of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and the fact discrimination was legal on race 52 years ago. The actual implementation of the civil rights act did not immediately stop the ramifications of earlier policies, and current policies are a problem too.

Let's look at the bigger issues and try to do something. Things are not equal. So let's examine the disparities we see. Look as small as possible to fix it.

For some of us, it may require us to accept the fact that we are not truly aware of what some people go through. That we may have that dirty word (privilege) that others don't have. Our parents or grandparents had the ability to buy houses, obtain education and wealth, to set us up for success. Opportunities others may not have had.

If we can recognize that. And listen. Then maybe we can have something truly wonderful and productive come out of this. All of this. We have a wonderful constitution. It's an attempt to apply a framework to the declaration of independence. Ideals of life, liberty, happiness. We haven't always guaranteed the rights for those for all of our citizens. Hell at times to provide rights and prosperity for some, we've trampled on the rights of others. Taken life and property.

Those scars run deep. There is no way to pay back the damage done by some of our ancestors. Reparations are not truly possible. But that doesn't mean that we don't look back to see what preceded the challenges we face now.  We can recognize aspects of our heritage to emulate, and those aspects to confront. There's nothing wrong with that. We have things we need to balance both good and ill. We don't have to take responsibility for the evil done in the past. But we can choose to recognize the impact. It's time to make that lead us to action.

I think the focus on police reform happening in a lot of our communities. But we can do more. We can look at providing the most equal opportunities in our public education, in healthcare, mental health, community services. That requires we get to know our local policies, leaders etc. 

That renewed focus is vital as we look to the future. Instead of squabbling over federal politics and large political ideals and theories we can turn and focus on solving actual problems. Instead of arguing over social media, we can listen and see where we can be of use. 

I'm looking forward to it.