UNDERSTANDING THE NEW DEBATE ON RACISIM

 

Since the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020, the debate on racism in America has changed. It has morphed from an emphasis on identifying racist attitudes into a social conflict to regulate “unacceptable” speech and behavior. The issue is no longer whether white privilege and systemic racism exist (which indeed they do), but what the proper response from a white person should be.

A host of books, essays and podcasts has tackled both ends of the debate. The first wave tried to identify passive racism and instruct white Americans who would listen on how to act to repent for their sins. The newest wave has fought back against this trend by pointing out that there is great danger in employing white privilege as a sledgehammer to attack white behavior. First, this approach assigns white people the task of becoming the saviors of Black America. Second, it turns many whites who are not “woke” and ready to assume the mantle of “racial sinner” into becoming defensive and less inclined to support racial progress.

In recent months, this new debate has expanded into our schools. Here the issue is not changing behavior, but changing the American history curriculum to include an honest presentation on slavery, reconstruction and civil rights. Because of the confusion over the new language of racism, I will begin by describing some of the important misunderstood and misapplied watchwords. I will end with my thoughts on how to address the new debate on racism.

Black Lives Matter: BLM is a decentralized political and social movement protesting against incidents of police brutality and other racially motivated violence against Black people. BLM employs non-violent disobedience and has had a positive effect on diversifying police forces and improving community relations.

Woke: To be woke originally meant to be alert to racial prejudice and discrimination. As the cultural wars exploded, it came to encompass a broader awareness of other inequalities such as sexism. Conservatives have placed negative implications on woke by attacking woke positions which they believe degrade traditional white culture and revise American history.

Cancel culture: Conservatives have invoked this negative term to describe the practice of excluding somebody who is “unwoke” from social or professional life because they have said or done something that woke advocates believe is racist or sexist. Conservatives believe that cancel culture is prevalent in academia, the media and the arts.

1619 Project: The 1619 Project is the New York Times’ historical analysis of how slavery influenced America’s political, social and economic institutions. The 1619 signifies the date that Africans were first brought to America against their will. Conservatives have criticized the project for negatively revising American history in order to place guilt on white America and to promote an ideology that is unpatriotic. In fact, teachers and students who were offered the 1619 Project material were universally enthusiastic in teaching/learning more about the role slavery and Black Americans have played in our past.

White privilege: White privilege is the relative advantage racism affords to individuals identified as white, whether the individual recognizes the privilege or not. The inexhaustible list of privileges includes the presumption of innocence, assumption of intelligence, opportunities available from a white network, policy-making power and access to inherited wealth, better schools and the ability to vote without impediments.

Systemic racism: Governments, businesses, schools or any institution with power that favors policies that perpetuate racial inequality are said to practice systemic racism. This would include any process that is chronically a disadvantage for African Americans.

Critical Race Theory: The central idea of CRT is that racism is ingrained in America’s history, legal systems, and policies. It is an academic construct that rejects the idea that racism is simply caused by prejudiced individuals. CRT incorporates the ideas of white privilege and systemic racism into a theory that racism is inherent in many aspects of American life, and it supports policy decisions to improve equality for African Americans. CRT has never been taught in public schools.

It is important to understand that the above terms are haphazardly being thrown around in the new debate on racism. White privilege, systemic racism, cancel culture and being woke are easily misapplied for bad motives. A few examples follow.

Many disadvantages like poverty and drug addiction affect white as well as Black people and are not illustrations of white privilege. Building roads and lowering interest rates are benefits for whites but are not systemic racism. Cancel culture does not include fact checking erroneous information or publicly “calling someone out” for spreading falsehoods on social media. Urging the defunding of police is irresponsible and not a requirement to be woke.

I believe that once Americans begin to understand the parameters of the new debate on racism, real progress can be made. In education, a majority of parents will have no objection to their children learning about slavery and its influence if the presentation is a fair representation of our history. The key is to present lesson plans that are balanced with adequate explanation.

I will end where I began with the new excesses of woke culture seeking to regulate speech and behavior concerning gender and race. For me this conduct is a kind of collective anxiety of Salem witch trial proportions. Let us not fall into the Trumpian trap of insisting on one way of thinking about race in America.

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