[ad_1]
South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott shocked many when, in response to President Joe Bidens’ speech to Congress, he declared America not a racist country. being stopped for no reason, being followed in a store while shopping. When asked on ABC’s Good Morning America the next day, Vice President Kamala Harris seemed to agree with Scott when she said, I don’t think America is a racist country. Yet immediately after this sentence she quickly pointed out, But we must also tell the truth about the history of racism in our country and its existence today.
As Soledad OBrien said, it sounds like a racist country to me, in response to Scott, but that apparently applies to Harris’s comments as well. President Biden, who appeared to not fire punches during his speech, said, “We have a real chance to eradicate the systemic racism that plagues America. However, Biden appeared to go back on his remarks on The Today Show to align himself more with Harris and Scott (to some extent) by noting that slavery and the Jim Crow laws came at a cost.
It’s almost like just saying America isn’t racist, but then turn the other cheek and say it’s racist in more subtle terms and racist things have been done to you, you’re fine. It is confusing for Americans and the international community. For the supporters, these comments are disappointing. For others, they were shocking. For me, the cognitive dissonance of some of our elected officials is real and explainable. There is an oversimplification of racism in America, because as sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva notes, there can be systemic racism without racists.
When someone criticizes America for the racism that runs deep in our social institutions, some feel like they are being personally attacked. This is because deep down they realize that they are benefiting from unearned assets associated with whiteness. Scott, Harris, and Biden recognize this and try to balance these different perspectives as they worry about voters nationwide and in a state like South Carolina.
Recently a city council meeting for parents fell apart trying to explain why she doesn’t want critical race theory taught in her children’s school. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has said that systemic racism as a concept is a pile of horse manure. So not only did Florida legalize harming people who protested, it also banned the teaching of critical race theory in schools.
I conducted research with Matt Hunton on what predicts who thinks they are middle class. For education, income, and professional prestige, blacks are less likely to identify as middle class compared to whites with comparable levels of these socioeconomic outcomes. Why ? This is because social class is not just about how a person looks on paper, but how people experience social class in everyday life and the deference one receives for their social status. -economic. Blacks are less likely to get this deference, while whites often get more. It’s so commonplace for whites that some can’t imagine living without it. This is because many whites, especially whites with lower levels of education and income, realize that whiteness comes with a premium that extends beyond economics to include cultural capital. and social. As President Lyndon Johnson said, if you can convince the lowest white man that he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you are pocketing his money. Damn, give him someone to despise, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.
Harris and Scotts’ comments are also puzzling on a larger level, given the importance of collective memory of their experiences with racism.
These stories recognize that life is different if you are black, and sadly, systemic racism seems to be rampant in our social institutions and in our daily social interactions, whether in Congress or in a cafe down rue du Capitole. These types of experiences of racialized cuts and barriers have a cumulative effect on health. Sociologists Pam Jackson and Jason Cummings research that middle-class blacks have a worse health profile than working-class whites.
Consistently, we know that blacks versus whites are more likely to attend schools with less funding per student, less likely to get a job because of our black sounding name or even when attending a university in there. ‘Ivy League, less likely to get a home loan (even with the same credit rating), have their home appraised for fair value, are more likely to experience complications in pregnancy and maternal death, and more likely to ” have contact with the police and the criminal justice system.
Systemic racism inhibits (rather than prohibits as in the past) the ability of peoples to achieve all aspects of the American dream. This happens even for highly educated blacks with high incomes and no criminal record. In fact, research documents that whites with a criminal record are more likely to be called back for a job than blacks without one.
Research papers indicating that hard work (or lack thereof), intellect or criminality do not explain these findings. Instead, it is deeply embedded in our policies, rules, regulations and laws of social institutions that segment peoples’ experiences along racial lines. It is the same for the genre. Women can be successful but have a much harder time doing it. Otherwise America would have had a female Vice President and Speaker of the House sitting behind the President long before 2021.
What people don’t seem to realize is that being mobile upwards doesn’t prevent you from encountering racist obstacles on the way to success. Our current system is designed so that some people have to overcome obstacles to be successful, while others may just run to the finish line without those same obstacles. racial obstacles. Rather, it is a question of whether the paths to success are fair. This is what America says: a fair democracy. People are pushing for America to achieve its true ideals and the only way that can happen properly is to recognize the systemic barriers that keep us from getting there. Moreover, it is not that racial progress has not been made. It is because the United States has not made enough progress yet. In this regard, the comments of our most elected officials are disappointing, but predictable.
Successful blacks often walk on pins and needles because they realize that their success, let alone maintenance, is precarious. As a result, some blacks aim to put whites at ease. Many of us are mostly socialized to do this. It is often a survival strategy for our lives in encounters with the police or economic survival in meeting rooms. Some of us who are successful may experience survivor remorse because we are among the few who are successful. We actually embody the American dream and become the example in person for people who don’t want to admit that systemic racism exists. We can even convince ourselves that racism is more present at the individual level than at the institutional level. We simultaneously represent racial progress, but are also the most susceptible to racial discrimination due to the predominantly white spaces in which we are embedded. We experience a chronic form of double consciousness and admitting it as such can often lead us to be aware of the slow death we often experience through the cumulative racist cuts and obstacles we encounter. The achievable American dream for a few does not absolve the system and imperfect union, even when some of these successful people try to rationalize systemic racism.
In most cases: When black parents worry more about their heterosexual students’ traffic problems with the police than about a potential accident, it is due to experiences of racism. When a black couple is about to have a baby and must consciously think about which hospital to give birth to in order to get fair care, that’s racism. When a black parent worries that their child is attending a prestigious university outside of an urban area, it is often because of racism. they fear that they will drive to school and even once physically on the school campus. And even more urban universities are not absolved of racism.
Systemic racism is not just a thing of the past. It’s up close and personal in the present.
Racism may not be more transparent in an institution with the least representative racial progress like the Senate. There have only been 11 black senators in about 232 years. Obviously, the Senate is the exact space we need from people with the courage to speak the frank and honest truth. on our past and present nations. Only then can we realize a future where systemic racism does not exist. It is imperative that the truth, reconciliation and the process of reparation begin. It begins with the atonement for the slavery of millions of Africans whose descendants are constantly lagging behind, whether they end up being the only black Republican senator or a black police officer who might have the power to stop him. We have to have the courage to speak the truth in power and one of the places it starts is in Congress. If not now, then when?
[ad_2]
picture credit