Systemic racism

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Wednesday, August 12. 2020

The Invention of ‘Systemic Racism’

I have seen almost no overt racism in my life, other than a bit of paranoia about Muslims on airplanes. I am not sure whether that counts as racism. Having been a victim of two crimes in NYC by black guys, and another in Cambridge MA, I am instinctively wary of guys in hoodies behind me on empty streets at night but I don't call that racism either.

I think the idea of systemic racism was invented when ordinary, disgusting racism disappeared with the passing of generations.

Your thoughts?

Posted by The Barrister in Politics at 17:47 | Comments (16) | Trackbacks (0)

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The entire world of the Left is a fantasy of their own construction.

#1 sennacherib on 2020-08-12 18:41 (Reply)

Given the cities and jurisdictions where the the rioting occurs, I'd say "systemic racism" is simply another way of saying "longstanding Democrat Party governance."

#2 PubliusII on 2020-08-12 19:04 (Reply)

I have to say I have seen systemic racism. I spent 20 years in the military lived, worked and played sports with blacks and had many black friends. I have also been on the receiving end of racism from them and including being called racist names. When it first happened, people I knew and liked choose to be racist towards me I was stunned. What happened? But after years of it one common factor seemed to account for it. Whenever there were multiple black people and just one or two whites the black racism would rear it's ugly head. it was so common that one incident stands out in stark difference. I was in my room shared with two room mates and one was black and he was in the room with two of his black friends. The racism started and my black room mate immediately told his friends that was unacceptable and this room was mine too and I should not be disrespected in this way, Good on him. I knew him for three years and he was always one of the good guys. I played sports, basketball and softball with blacks and whites of course, and for some reason in sports this kind of thing comes out often. Usually name calling and unnecessary intentional physical contact.

It was systemic and unending. On one occasion a friend and I went to a black bar because we had heard that the music was really good. The black man at the door was a friend and co-worker and he warned us away. We laughed it off and went in anyway. We were both subjected to name calling, pushing, being denied service and threats. I even knew half a dozen people in there but they joined in the racism. I'm not sure why. I think it is a "black" thing not unlike the phrase "acting white" is an insult. I believe that the purpose is to show their peers how "unwhite" they are.

I can add that the individual I have looked up to the most in my life (other than my father) was a black man I knew in the military. All of this was 40-50 years ago and it still bothers me. What bothers me is I genuinely liked a number of people who made the choice to act in this way. Not all of them did, as I have already stated. But when someone you consider a friend does it then it really has an impact.

#3 OneGuy on 2020-08-12 20:37 (Reply)

Juan Williams was fired by NPR for saying he got nervous when Muslims got on his plane.
That was just after 9/11.
Fox hired him right after.

#4 oolioo on 2020-08-12 23:03 (Reply)

Hiring Juan was one of the worst things Fox has ever done.

#4.1 Ron Snyder (Link) on 2020-08-13 07:15 (Reply)

Systemic racism is the idea that "Racism" is not located in time or space. It can't be identified. Systemic Racism means that the system itself is the problem. Money, work, salary, family, home. These are all parts of the system within which racism exists. So the solution is not to target racism. The solution is to target white people. They represent the system.

#5 Ron Liebermann on 2020-08-13 00:32 (Reply)

Systemic racism is the fallback explanation for why American blacks, who have an average IQ of 86, don't pass IQ-equivalent tests like lieutenants' exams at the same rate as whites.

Teaching good character would fix it. Good character trumps IQ as a path to success, but they do the opposite. "Here's a chip you can put on your shoulder." Let us make you worthless in the job market.

#6 rhhardin on 2020-08-13 06:29 (Reply)

Thomas Sowell describes IQ, with bounteous supporting data, as a function of culture, rather than being an irremediable genetic determinant. A choice to work hard for future security is a potent and instant booster of IQ. To deny this reality is to condemn those with low IQ to permanent societal inadequacy.

#6.1 DeGaulle on 2020-08-13 07:21 (Reply)

That would be nice but it isn't true. Jordan Peterson has some lectures on it. Stuff you don't want to be true but which is true nevertheless. Geneticists are interested in genetics, not culture, and do everything to take out culture as a confounding factor.

Culture certainly and hugely affects success but not IQ.

#6.1.1 rhhardin on 2020-08-13 07:55 (Reply)

"Teaching good character would fix it....

Indeed, and that starts with intact black families, which were set on the road to destruction 50 years ago with Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. Enact welfare that encourages single-mom "families" with multiple kids by multiple fathers, and it's done.

Then encourage all blacks to see themselves as victims, with only government loooking after them, and you get a large dependent subculture that thinks and acts as if they have no agency over their own lives. Plus - added benefit for bureaucrats in DC - they become permanent wards of the state.

#6.2 PubliusII on 2020-08-13 07:53 (Reply)

I saw plenty of racism growing up in the segregated south. The racism we are seeing now is exactly the same - people are judged, hired, promoted, etc. because of the color of their skin.

#7 Juan Paxety (Link) on 2020-08-13 07:21 (Reply)

Racism is alive and well, and if you think it's just a feature of Caucasians in America then try living in a country where that race is a minority in the single digits. You will quickly see racism.

I remember searing reminders of racism's American legacy in the South: Drinking fountains on opposing walls in the older courthouse lobbies, for example, their purpose clear even if there were no longer signs. I've been waiting in line for the bank teller and have had old black men who were ahead of me, get out of line and go to the back behind me, out of habits so quiet and unobtrusive I didn't even notice at first.

But these are legacies of the past; the US is not that place anymore. Now, we have racism back in fashion, pure and simple, supposedly directed in revenge for slights that have not visited on its purveyors. Today's racism is really just another expression of opportunism, just like the looting. Another gratifying way to take advantage. It's there for the having, and it will continue just as long as it's allowed to. There is no self-regulating feature.

#8 Aggie on 2020-08-13 08:23 (Reply)

Systemic racism is the excuse for not doing well economically. Blacks benefit from all sorts of black privilege. Blacks receive an enormous amount of welfare: Section Eight Housing, AFDC, Head Start, hiring quotas, set-asides, lower standards in school admissions, police and fire department hiring. Schools have free breakfasts and lunches for blacks and they give illiterate blacks diplomas. Blacks are in effect wards of the government, like the Indians. I grew up in New Mexico and saw how the Indians lived. Being a ward of the government will not make you prosperous.

#9 Ray on 2020-08-13 09:54 (Reply)

I think it is pretty racist that the FBI stopped publishing the inter racial rape statistics back in 2015. The last numbers available showed almost no white on black rapes when using actual whites and not including Hispanic. The number of black on white rapes was in the thousands.
I also think systemic racism is shown by there being almost no working class white neighborhoods in most major cities, when you can almost always find neighborhoods with Black or Dominican or Asian, etc, but never poor whites in most cities. Poor whites are not allowed to have their own neighborhoods in the cities where jobs and benefits are available. they are kept out by violence and systemic racism. Poor whites live in the trailer parks and rural enclaves of poor far away from the jobs and benefits. No one ever talks about it because no one is allowed to organize and advocate for the interests of poor whites the way other groups advocate for their groups.

#10 R Moffett (Link) on 2020-08-13 11:31 (Reply)

I was a child in Texas back when Jim Crow was still a thing and only just being addressed. These people bleating about micro aggressions and systemic racism are not old enough to have seen the real thing, so they have to invent it. Is overt racism gone? Of course not. Is it acceptable in our society, though? No, it is not, but the racialists are doing everything in their power to bring it back.

#11 RebeccaH on 2020-08-13 12:25 (Reply)

“There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps... then turn around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”― Jesse Jackson

#12 Gunga Din on 2020-08-13 13:25 (Reply)

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Wednesday, August 12. 2020

Systemic racism