Originally Posted by
Brian96
What makes it "racism" is that outcomes vary by race. But your take on the issue illustrates why I think the academic term "systemic racism" is unhelpful in fostering understanding and conversation in the public square, since the the word "racism" is heavily laden with moral valence. More helpful might be something like "systemic inequality" or "residual inequality."
A metaphor that has helped me conceptualize residual inequality is thinking of the United States as a relay race. To keep it simple, let's just focus on voting rights, under the hopefully obvious premise that people who vote have at least some influence on the behavior of government and that laws that are passed are going to (at least to some extent) benefit those who vote (as this premise is the foundation for having a representational government in the first place). Focusing just on the right to vote and just the last, say, 300 years (yards for illustration) of our history, the rules of the race (actual laws) initially allowed only White males who owned property to run. Shortly after that, White males who did not own property were also allowed to begin running. Those who made the laws were the first to benefit from them, so within a few dozen years you had the foundation of our entire system of laws as it exists today, but it was designed by--and therefore designed to benefit--White males, and White male property owners the most.
After the White males reached about 170 yards, the rules started to open up to allow Black males also to vote. However, other rules were put in place that severely limited the actual ability of Blacks to vote. So, let's say, for the sake of the metaphor, that Black males were allowed to leave the starting line and begin the race, but their lane was filled with obstacles to slow or completely halt their progress at that point. After the White males reached about 200 yards, women were allowed to begin voting. Finally, after the White males reached the 250 yard mark, the obstacles were cleared from the Blacks' lane.
So now, for the first time in our history, everyone has a level playing field and is free to run as fast as they can toward the American dream. But although the field is now level, we are all at different degrees of progress. The race is a relay, so as a White male, I received my baton about 200 yards further down the track than a Black female born the same day in the same hospital I was.
This is very simplified, but illustrates the foundation. The entire system of laws reflects those who voted for the laws, and implicitly benefits them (in much the same way that if I, at 5'6", were elected to decide how tall kitchen counters should be for the entire nation, someone who is 6'6" is going to be disadvantaged; even if it's not my goal to disadvantage them, but my design is going to be influenced by my worldview). From here you could begin to trace the effects of specific laws over time. And even though overtly racist (in the moral sense) have been purged from the system, their traces are still there and exert an influence. (For just one example, in most of the country, penalties were codified to be more severe for Blacks than for Whites for the same offense. This is one of the reasons Blacks are still more likely to receive a heavier sentence than Whites for the same offense. The stated rationale for the harsher penalties back in the day was that Blacks are inherently more dangerous. This overtly racist sentiment is a sort of ghost that still haunts our legal system.)
What makes this residue so powerful is that for a HUGE number of variables, your parents' status is the biggest predictor of where you'll end up (e.g., intelligence is correlated with parents' education level, so the generations of White males in my family who had access to any kind of school gives me a leg up).
For the record, about 25 years ago my arguments on these topics were all along the lines of what Dawg80 has been posting in the thread. I'm not a "libtard" or whatever. My thinking shifted due to things I observed in real life, which led me to do my own research and draw my own conclusions on the matter.
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