I don't do anything or honestly know what to do? What do you do or suggest?
I only have one child and I talk to him about racism and the problems it creates. I do not teach him about systemic racism because I think it is nebulous and counter productive.
My son got 3 problems wrong on a math test yesterday. He actually answered all three questions correctly, but the teacher thought his 6 looked like a b in two places (I disagree) and his 5 was just messy I guess. He's in the 3rd grade. It was a subtraction test. There is no mistaking his numbers for anything else within reason. As a parent, your natural reaction is to ask why is the teacher picking on my son. It's the same reaction you get when your kid doesn't start on the soccer team when he is clearly better than little Johnny. Is the coach flirting with Johnny's mom and showing preferential treatment? Is it because I yelled at him the other day in the parking lot? Or is it maybe because my kid sucks on defense?
I am trying to teach my son to recognize the factors that he can control and make changes where he can. He already has a tendency to pass blame as his first instinct. I don't think that is a good thing for him. Something like systemic racism would represent an "easy out" and might prevent someone from looking at their own responsibility for an action. I don't think that is healthy at a young age.
He's probably a little young to learn about systemic racism yet anyway. That's a heavy burden to put on a kid. For now I'm content to just teach him about the evils of racism and how to recognize it and respond to it.
I will pose the question to our two resident experts on systemic racism. What laws do you think represent systemic racism and how would you change them? What other actions do you think are some of the most important steps to removing the burden of systemic racism?
The only "systemic" racism is so-called reverse racism.
Last edited by detltu; 09-29-2017 at 03:53 PM. Reason: removed incorrect quote.
It is hard to imagine systemic racism to be ameliorated in a single generation, but I am not an expert.
I think there is general awareness of the issue, but I don't think it is widely understood or fully appreciated. My suggestion is to temporarily put your beliefs and worldview on the shelf and imagine how your life would be different from cradle to grave if you were black. How would your experiences be different? How might your behavior be different? I suspect you know some people that are racist. How would your relationship with them change? How would your experience in grade school and high school be different? What would your peer group have been? Would you have gone to the same college? Pursued the same degree? Had the same job opportunities? Married the same woman? How would your kids experiences be different? Would all of your experiences with law enforcement been the same? Would you react the same way to Ferguson, charlottesville? Kaepernick? Would you live in the same neighborhood? Have the same friends? Have the same hobbies? Have the same political views? Go to the same church?
No need to answer, but these are things I think everyone has to think about before you can really be empathetic about racial inequality. And not just answer the questions but truly imagine yourself in those moments and how those experiences feel.
I did not want to comment on this for fear of possibly being on the same page as you-know-who.
It is possible for racism to exist without anyone attempting to be a racist. For instance, if a university or country club has a policy of allowing children or relatives of alumni or previous members to have preferential treatment to become admitted, there is a residual racism that exists there if they excluded certain races from becoming involved in the past.
Many jobs are obtained by knowing someone knowing the person doing the hiring (or knowing the person doing the hiring). Given that neighborhoods were largely segregated in the past and certain races were unlikely to be given admission to a university, it is unlikely that a person of those races would have that kind of access to those opportunities.
In a perfect meritocracy none of this would matter because it would not matter who you knew or to whom you were related. But there are enough cases where special treatment is given based on things that happened when there was limited or no access to opportunity.
i'm not saying that there are not a lot of things that need to be corrected and improved, but the above post is just wrong.
the fact that statistical differences can be drawn on racial lines does not imply racism. consider this imaginary situation:
group A is 80% black.
group B is 80% white.
group B gets special privileges.
in this situation (which is similar to the examples brought forth above) the privileges enjoyed by the whites in group B does nothing to help the whites in group A. also the blacks in group B have no problem receiving the privileges in question.
disparities along racial lines do not equal racism, and privilege does not equal oppression.