No, America is not a racist country
The land of opportunity is for all
February 11, 2021
Since the earliest days of American history, the governing philosophy of the United States is rooted in the protection of individual rights. These rights include the protection of life, the ability to exercise liberty, and the freedom to pursue happiness. They are fundamental to our identity as Americans. Americans of all different races, ethnicities, creeds, and religions profess these rights as true and universal.
However, in the year 2021, it has become fashionable to indict the American system as “systemically racist”. This phrase is thrown around a lot in our culture. From professors in the classrooms to bios on TikTok, these two words are everywhere. But what do they mean? To be clear and define terms, the word “systemic” according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary means system-wide and all-encompassing. And the word racism, according to Merriam-Webster means to discriminate, antagonize, or have malice towards another race.
Joining the two phrases in the context of an entire nation such as the United States would mean that every system within the United States exhibits some form of racist and discriminatory behavior. In my opinion, this is a lie.
Consider the facts. Fact number one: the Constitution of the United States explicitly protects every citizen from unequal protection under the law, guarantees procedural due process, and affords every person birthed on American soil citizenship (a practice uncommon around the world). As of now, there is no good law that discriminates against someone based on skin color. And if there was such law, the Court would rightfully decry that law as unconstitutional.
Fact number two: the top two median income groups by distinct race are non-white. According to the Census Bureau, the top two median income earners (that is the average for everyone in a certain category) by race in the United States are Indian Americans and Taiwanese Americans. The median household income for Indian Americans is 88% better than the average White American. This is a greater income gap than the 58% disparity between the average White American and the average Black American.
While we would like to see incomes rise for every group, this data suggests that the American free-market economic system is far from systemically racist. Any racial group has the potential to out-earn any other, and the system can and does benefit people of color.
Fact number three: success is achievable in America even after periods of overt oppression.
There is no denying the United States has had an evil past when it comes to race. From the forced removal of the Cherokee people to the institution of slavery, Jim Crow laws, the United States is by no means faultless. However, in the modern-day United States, everyone can succeed despite egregious racial tragedies.
For example, in the succeeding decades following the end of the Second World War, Japanese Americans experienced a dramatic increase in their standard of living. The blog Densho, a project that seeks to understand the post-war history of Japanese Americans, describes it this way. “Many Americans came to recognize that the wartime incarceration had been a mistake”. Three decades after the war Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. This bill provided a presidential apology and $20,000 payments to surviving former detainees. Japanese Americans would go on to become famous actors, military heroes, and members of Congress.
This success translates beyond just Japanese Americans. Celebrities such as Kanye West, Oprah Winfrey, Lebron James, and Barack Obama have achieved incredible success in the United States. These celebrities, and heroes for some, would not be as successful today if they did not live in a system that rewards hard work and innovation. Our system permitted a black man to rise from poverty and create the greatest shoe of all time, the Yeezy 350 V2. The United States, because of its focus on individual rights and free-market economics, permits the success of any person from any racial group.
Fact number four: the political system in the United States protects minority rights.
Perhaps the most important rebuttal to the myth of systemic racism is that rights in the United States protect the individual. The Bill of Rights was explicitly written to protect the people in the minority from the majority. Freedom of speech is guaranteed to prevent the government from silencing media it disagrees with. The right to bear arms is in place to prevent tyrants. Due process is in place to prevent kangaroo courts. The United States Senate is there to protect against the passions of the House of Representatives. The Electoral College exists to prevent Los Angeles and New York from choosing the President.
All of these things work in tandem with each other in a system designed for gridlock. If the system were not designed for gridlock, the majority could easily oppress the minority. For example, in Rwanda in 1994, the Tutsi ethnic group was overrun by the Hutu majority bent on wielding out a racial minority. This ended with the deaths of about 600,000 Rwandans, solely because minority rights were not protected. If a country were as racist as the modern political left says the United States is, the political system would not protect minority rights and be far more efficient in perpetuating racism.
Opponents of these arguments would take the view that the United States’ system of government was built to protect the institution of slavery and perpetuate the racism that followed. Ibram X. Kendi and others are examples of authors on the left that seem to take this view; the view being that America is and always has been systemically racist.
Kendi’s extraordinarily radical ideas have become mainstream within the academy. These radical ideas can be clearly identified. Kendi, in his book “How to be an Antiracist”, states “capitalism is essentially racist” and “racism is essentially capitalist.”
This extremely broad claim is debunked by many civil rights activists and economists alike.
Economist and Civil Rights Activist Dr. Thomas Sowell disagrees with Kendi. Sowell, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution notes that “Capitalism knows only one color: that color is green; all else is necessarily subservient to it, hence, race, gender, and ethnicity cannot be considered within it”.
Sowell is correct in this view as countless times throughout the history of the world, corporations and businesses have teamed up with civil rights activists.
For example, in the 1896 landmark Supreme Court case “Plessey Vs. Ferguson ”, the East Louisiana Railroad joined Homer Plessey in fighting for the equal treatment of people of color in law. The rail company saw racial segregation as a heavy cost burden because the cost of purchasing separate rail cars was exorbitant. Plessey would ultimately lose the case. However, Justice Harlan’s dissent would enshrine American legal thought for decades to come when he stated that the United States Constitution “is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.”
Kendi simply neglects this example along with countless others. Kendi divides each political issue into two categories – “racist and antiracist”. He presents a false dichotomy so as to implicate the political right on the racist side and the political left on the antiracist side. By doing so, Kendi perpetuates an already divisive political climate. He rejects the principles of American innovation and entrepreneurship by deriding capitalism, despite benefiting directly from the same capitalist system that sells his books. With Kendi’s political positions masquerading as racial justice, Kendi hinders the work of civil rights heroes like Ida B. Wells, Octavius Cato, and Martin Luther King Jr.
In short, to succeed as an American and be what you want to be, you do not need to be born with a certain skin color. America is not designed to favor a certain race. America rewards hard work and innovation. America is a kind and just nation. Its people, by and large, are the most tolerant on Earth. So no, America is not systemically racist. Don’t let your professors tell you otherwise.
reallly? • May 14, 2021 at 7:38 am
one question: why were their slaves in American history? if you claim our country isnt racist and protects civil liberties. stop the bullshit, go do some real research. smh….click bait
Dexter • Nov 26, 2021 at 12:14 pm
There were slaves in almost every nation around the world for 3,000 years before people emigrated America. Native Americans were the first slave holders.
Alumni • Mar 4, 2021 at 1:29 pm
This author has a lack of empathy.
A whole segment of the population has been literally marching in the streets to plead that their lives just matter, and he’s over here scratching his head saying, “I dunno, it’s not a problem I experience so it must not exist?”
Maybe spend your time listening to people when they are crying for help, instead of writing op-eds against them to perpetuate your ignorance. Or do nothing if you must. Doing nothing would hurt people less at this point.
M • Mar 1, 2021 at 3:04 am
“Joining the two phrases in the context of an entire nation such as the United States would mean that every system within the United States exhibits some form of racist and discriminatory behavior.”
This isn’t what people are saying when they refer to systemic racism. This sounds like an intentional misrepresentation of the argument. The conversation surrounding the theory of race and the phenomenon of racism goes a little deeper than Merriam-Webster.
“As of now, there is no good law that discriminates against someone based on skin color. And if there was such law, the Court would rightfully decry that law as unconstitutional.”
There’s a difference between implicit and explicit racism. Here’s a good example of implicitly racist laws: mandatory literacy tests between the 1850s and 1960s. They didn’t prescribe that Black Americans couldn’t vote, and according to your rhetoric they wouldn’t be an example of systematic racism. BUT they were created to target Black Americans, who were (and are) not consistently afforded quality and accessible educations. These “sneaky” forms of voter suppression are still happening. POC have the right to vote, but their neighborhoods are often gutted of polling sites.
Implicitly racist contemporary laws include laws prohibiting marijuana consumption, which were created intently to target minority and anti-war groups (and generally anything related to the war on drugs). Black Americans are 3.64x more likely to be arrested for marijuana use, despite the fact that white people use marijuana at about the same rates (https://www.aclu.org/report/tale-two-countries-racially-targeted-arrests-era-marijuana-reform). The disparity varies from state to state.
Regarding anti-marijuana laws, John Elrichman (Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs of President Nixon) is quoted in Harper’s Magazine as saying:
“You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.”
Explicitly racist laws, like during Jim Crow, cannot exist. But this is not proof that laws that target POC do not exist.
“The top two median income groups by distinct race are non-white. According to the Census Bureau, the top two median income earners (that is the average for everyone in a certain category) by race in the United States are Indian Americans and Taiwanese Americans.”
Maybe you’d rethink spreading the model minority myth considering the recent surge of hate crimes against Asian Americans, who compose roughly 10% of the student body at SPU. There are other factors to look at as well, like Asian Americans having larger family sizes and still being discriminated against in workplace environments, where Asian Americans with a bachelor’s degree earn far less than white Americans with that same degree. To say that racism is still a problem is not to say that it operates the exact same way for all POC. The history of Taiwanese and Indian people in America is quite dissimilar from the history of Black Americans, who were subject to chattle slavery, segregation, redlining, et cetera, which disadvantaged them severely and uniquely from an economic perspective.
“Success is achievable in America even after periods of overt oppression.”
Just because someone can make it doesn’t mean there aren’t barriers in the way of keeping people belonging to a certain identity from making it. People who acknowledge contemporary racism never made the claim that Black Americans cannot ever be successful. It’s a fact that Black Americans generally receive poorer quality education and healthcare. The school to prison pipeline is a very real phenomenon. The system being rigged doesn’t mean people can’t get through. Does Frederick Douglass’s success indicate that systemic racism was nonexistent during his lifetime? Of course not.
“Perhaps the most important rebuttal to the myth of systemic racism is that rights in the United States protect the individual.”
Per the 13th Amendment in the US Constitution: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States. . .”
Interesting, then, the relationship between policing, slavery, and slave catchers (https://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/). That’s not even getting started on the American prison system, which disadvantages Black Americans at every turn.
“African-American prisoners who are convicted of murder are about 50% more likely to be innocent than other convicted murderers. Part of that disparity is tied to the race of the victim. African Americans imprisoned for murder are more likely to be innocent if they were convicted of killing white victims. Only about 15% of murders by African Americans have white victims, but 31% of innocent African-American murder exonerees were convicted of killing white people. . .The convictions that led to murder exonerations with black defendants were 22% more likely to include misconduct by police officers than those with white defendants. In addition, on average black murder exonerees spent three years longer in prison before release than white murder exonerees, and those sentenced to death spent four years longer.”
http://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/Race_and_Wrongful_Convictions.pdf
According to an investigation by the Department of Justice, Black Americans in Ferguson were more than twice as likely as whites to be searched after traffic stops even after controlling for related variables, though they were 26% less likely to be in possession of illegal drugs or weapons (https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/ferguson_police_department_report.pdf). According to that investigation, between 2011 and 2013, Black Americans also received 95% of jaywalking tickets and 94% of tickets for “failure to comply.” They also found that the racial discrepancy for speeding tickets increased dramatically when researchers looked at tickets based on only an officer’s word vs. tickets based on objective evidence. Black Americans facing similar low-level charges as white people were 68% less likely to see those charges dismissed in court.
According to a Stanford analysis of 4.5 million traffic stops in North Carolina, Black Americans and latinos were more likely to be searched than whites (5.4 percent, 4.1 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively). Despite this, searches of white motorists were the most likely to reveal contraband (32% of whites, 29% of blacks, 19% of latinos). https://arxiv.org/pdf/1607.05376.pdf
According to the United States Sentencing Commission, extensive multivariate regression analysis indicates black male offenders receive 19.1% longer federal sentences than similarly-situated white male offenders. Regression analysis suggests violence in a criminal’s history does NOT explain sentencing disparities between Black males and similarly situated white males (https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2017/20171114_Demographics.pdf).
Black men are twice as likely to have charges which carry mandatory minimum sentences filed against them than similarly-situated white men (https://www.yalelawjournal.org/article/mandatory-sentencing-and-racial-disparity-assessing-the-role-of-prosecutors-and-the-effects-of-booker).
The Urban Institute analyzed the histories of four probation offices and found Black people were 18-39% more likely than similarly-situated white people to have their probation revoked (https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/22746/413174-Examining-Racial-and-Ethnic-Disparities-in-Probation-Revocation.PDF).
A study of first-time felons in Georgia found Black men received sentences of on average 270 days longer than similarly-situated white males (https://sci-hub.tw/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jels.12077).
What I’m saying is, hey, maybe it’s not a coincidence that the prison system is the one caveat to slavery, and that Black Americans are targetted en masse regardless of actual criminal behavior.
As for day-to-day racism:
Results from three separate studies on perception and racial bias show people have a tendency to perceive Black men as larger and more threatening than similarly sized white men (https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-pspi0000092.pdf).
Or what about the phenomenon of “black names” resulting in lower interview rates? http://www-2.rotman.utoronto.ca/facbios/file/Whitening%20MS%20R2%20Accepted.pdf
Pregnancy-related mortality rates for POC and specifically Black women are infamously high. Black women are also far more likely than white women to die from other conditions including heart disease and cervical cancer.
I could cite research all day. But this is what it comes down to: POC in America face violence, bigotry, and disrespect in many environments, from the court to the workplace to the hospital. This isn’t about defending whatever you think America is, this is about treating others with equity, humanity, and compassion. It’s your responsibility as a human being to listen to the lived experiences of POC and not gaslight them because, uh, Kanye West. Some things are bigger than what you want to believe is true.
Danny Fargo • Feb 23, 2021 at 6:08 pm
ooof, gotta love the chat stanning literal fascist kendi.
you’re fine, Liam, keep going. SPU’s a big of a lib hellhole, can’t imagine it got better since I left. it’s fun to watch instagram the few years after graduating and see where everyone ends up.
disappointed but not surprised at all • Feb 18, 2021 at 6:24 pm
just to confirm for everyone in the comments, Liam is a cis het white male in case you didnt feel like skimming instagram as I did. Also seems pretty easy to guess he’s relatively middle class if not higher based on his dubbing the Yeezy as the greatest shoe ever made. He’s wearing different pairs in pictures.
Your article is ridiculous. Why is the paper still publishing your writing. 1) this isnt silencing conservative voices. his is not silenced, and it would be justified if it was. as many other people have said, most if not all of his claims have been widely disputed and credibly refuted. There is no reason for Liam to continue to perpetuate this harmful rhetoric.
Also if you still stand by your thoughts on this I challenge you to reach out to Kendi and share directly your issues with his school of thought. Also as someone else said you should definitely request a refund for any tuition you’ve paid.
A Greatly Disappointed Alum • Feb 18, 2021 at 1:53 pm
I am an Asian American alum of SPU and I am disappointed that racist dismissive voices like these continue to be amplified even as I have long graduated. As an Asian American, I challenge you to look deeper into the Asian American context and move beyond the model minority framework that has been used to dismiss the existence of systemic racism. Yes ethnic groups like Taiwanese and Indian Americans have higher incomes on average BUT do you consider the fact that many Asian American households have more workers per household than many white families? Also the fact that Asian American families tend to be bigger and have more multigenerational folks working? Do you also consider the fact that US immigration policy is very selective towards college-educated and STEM-educated immigrants as the majority of people in countries like Taiwan and India do not have the same privileges and opportunities that the US allows to immigrate here? Also, please don’t highlight the Asian American experience when COVID-19 has highlighted the continued racism and violence against the Asian American communities. Education and class do not protect our community from racist insults we get on the street or if racists decide to loot our businesses and livelihoods. Also, do some more reading on how racist laws still exist and how many neighborhoods have white only housing covenants even years after the Civil Rights Era. Please read The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein to read more about how housing laws are still racist. So have a great day and try to get your money’s worth for your expensive education.
Trump2024askedmetopi$$inhismouth • Feb 17, 2021 at 2:23 pm
That’s not what affirmative action is you weirdo
Camryn Ling • Feb 13, 2021 at 12:50 pm
Liam,
You might want to get a refund from SPU because obviously they have yet to educate you in the slightest…but please, keep spouting your false, uninformed and ignorant opinions. Obviously you need the attention
Ew • Feb 13, 2021 at 10:43 am
This is an embarrassing attempt at arguing a point for which there are no sound supporting facts. Please look into our current prison system, cash bail, and the school to prison pipeline. Argue what you want about the intentions of those who wrote the constitution but the fact is that whether they intended it or not, we live in a society which benefits white men at the expense of people of color. You can watch the documentary “13th” on netflix as a starter.
TRUMP 2024 • Feb 12, 2021 at 8:26 pm
Thank you so much Liam. I am proud to know that I am not the only one who understands that America is not a racist country. Us whites have the right to be heard to!!!! I hope SPU quits with the affirmative action BS.
Just no • Feb 12, 2021 at 1:32 pm
To the original author: saying America isn’t systemically racist by naming famous people of color is like me saying there aren’t millions of people in developing nations who are food insecure because some people there can afford a house. \
To Cade Huston who commented on this supporting him: You are no better, listen to something other than Ben Shapiro for once, and yes I know your last name.
anon • Feb 12, 2021 at 12:25 pm
Hey @ the Falcon let’s maybe not publish articles about racism written by cishet white men 🙂
:) • Feb 12, 2021 at 8:45 am
https://youtu.be/YrHIQIO_bdQ liam, perhaps this would help clarify what exactly “systemic” means in this context
Not surprised, just disappointed • Feb 12, 2021 at 3:19 am
Please do some research next time instead of skimming content for sentences that fit your rhetoric
Anonymous • Feb 12, 2021 at 3:06 am
Dude wut lol.
anonymous • Feb 12, 2021 at 1:02 am
You say America isn’t made to favor one race yet it was literally found by white men who employed slavery and stole land from others. I’d encourage you to take a sociology class to learn about what’s really happening in society, you’ve probably never experienced racism LiAm but it is out there and always has been. You probably don’t believe in it because it’s never happened to you, please do more research and gather more information. Props to you for speaking your opinion, but claiming America isn’t racist is nothing short of a joke.
:| • Feb 11, 2021 at 10:00 pm
Just came here to say that your “educate yourself”/“open your mind” comments are annoying and hypocritical. You’re the problem 🙂
Anon • Feb 11, 2021 at 9:03 pm
Please try to explain how America is not systemically racist when there is proof that many Americans show implicit bias towards BIPOC…
Mike • Feb 11, 2021 at 7:34 pm
This writer has left out a lot of information on this topic. It’s extremely surprising and disheartening that a student in their fourth year of university has completely disregarded and, as it appears, purposefully ignored the mufat theory on race in America. I would recommend to the writer to get more closely acquainted with mufat. I urge you to please do better.
Frank Helmstetter • Feb 11, 2021 at 6:40 pm
It’s really sad how ignorant and misinformed nearly everything found in this piece is. Power to you for speaking your mind, but to debate the undeniable truth of systemic racism that is visible in nearly every facet of our lives and in the ways America operates is not only ridiculous, but also quite unfair to our BIPOC communities hurting on a disproportionate level now more than in recent years.
Also Disappointed • Feb 11, 2021 at 6:39 pm
Hi Liam,
I think you would really benefit from taking Race and Ethnicity or really any sociology course.
@robert • Feb 11, 2021 at 6:22 pm
How is this conservative voices being silenced? He’s literally posting it on the school newspaper. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences and if you post something so purposely harmful, not to mention completely false, people are going to respond.
Garglon • Feb 11, 2021 at 5:56 pm
The author claims that “America is not systemically racist,” while not only being completely unaware of his harmful rhetoric, is factually false. The authors claim doesn’t take into consideration the daily pain and affliction of the Sugondese people of the south. We must do better.
Keep writing! • Feb 11, 2021 at 5:53 pm
Thank you for being willing to speak truth in a courageous way. Know you are not alone and your articles give those on campus that don’t follow liberal ideologies a feeing that they are not alone! Please continue speaking up with the truth, there are many who are listening!
Shocked and disgusted • Feb 11, 2021 at 5:33 pm
Is this for real? This is one of the most closed-minded statements I’ve read in a long time. I’m assuming the author is a white, cis-gendered male who’s never been the victim of a racist act or comment. He shouldn’t be writing things like this if he doesn’t fully understand what it is to experience racism.
“America is not designed to favor a certain race”? Seriously? The country was literally founded by white cis-gendered men, the majority of which were slave owners. They were among the most racist of men, and they designed a racist country with their own rights and privileges in mind.
To the author, do more research beyond the documents written by these disgusting men. Read the historical documents that were written by people of color during time period. I think your perspective might change.
Overall, I’m so disappointed in this piece. I would encourage the Falcon to evaluate this and how it comes across to readers. Even though it’s an opinion piece, it’s very dishonest and offensive. Awful.
Disappointed As Well • Feb 11, 2021 at 4:08 pm
Although you may not be able to see it, it is not just “trendy” to bring light to and seek to erase the systemic racism of America. I pray that you can learn to look beyond you bias and realize that you aren’t seeing the whole picture. I find it humorous that you use 4 (wow FOUR!!) Black influential figures to explain away the systemic oppression of BIPOC individuals. Another funny little bit is the way you talk about Kanye’s pre-fame middle class life as “poverty,” a state to be overcome. Why assume he was impoverished before his talent was recognized? Did you do your research there or just make a guess?
Robertborkenthusiast • Feb 11, 2021 at 2:52 pm
Another example of conservative voices being silenced.
Cade • Feb 11, 2021 at 2:43 pm
A very thought provoking article. Systems must be run by certain rules and to claim a system is systemically racist it’s rules that govern it’s function must necessarily be racist. This article also is full of hope and statistics to back it up. The author hopes and longs for a day where we don’t assign value to race and it is thrown into the garbage bin of the past and people are judged not by the color of their skin but the content of their character. I hope one day we all can move past the evil ideas of racism and allow for the American system to do what it was always meant to do, provide freedom and liberty for all.
Cade2 • Dec 7, 2022 at 8:49 pm
Nice
nathanielle • Feb 11, 2021 at 2:26 pm
hey liam what did you mean by “I miss Obama!” on 3/9/2017? would love for you to comment
Jonathan Hacker • Feb 11, 2021 at 2:22 pm
This article is a complete disgrace.
Read the other one instead. And maybe we can realize our white fragility and actually start seeking God’s justice in our community, instead of lying to preserve our privileged place in society. Black Lives Matter, structural racism is real, implicit bias is real, racism is real, white privilege is real. This is not “fashionable” this is hard painful work that must be done.
https://thefalcon.seapacmedia.com/9697/opinions/racism-is-not-a-topic-for-debate/
Kolbe Logan • Feb 11, 2021 at 2:16 pm
Ratio
nathanielle • Feb 11, 2021 at 2:07 pm
did you ever think you weren’t creating original. cohesive and thought provoking ideas and that you were simply repeating popular arguments made by right-wing thinktanks whose jobs entail leading people like you to believe you’re being oppressed by ‘the radical left’? every single thing you’ve put forth in this article has been critically examined, addressed and understood to be not simply propaganda, but also an effort to gaslight Black and White Americans into believing everything is, has been and always will be ‘normal’.
anon • Feb 11, 2021 at 1:57 pm
I love how you use Martin Luther King Jr. a renowned Socialist, to defend the argument that capitalism isn’t racist.
anon • Feb 11, 2021 at 12:03 pm
this is a bad take, for the love of god stop writing these
Disappointed Reader • Feb 11, 2021 at 11:38 am
This is an extremely dishonest article. You are able to prove a point about systemic racism but only by cherry picking evidence from your sources and by blatantly ignoring evidence that doesn’t suit your argument. For example, you somehow tried to use the Plessy v. Ferguson case to prove your point by saying that since at least one judge and a single railroad company supported Plessy. But this does not prove your point at all. As you said, “the rail company saw racial segregation as a heavy cost burden because the cost of purchasing separate rail cars was exorbitant.” The only thing this proves is that the company only had profits in mind, but not that they were fighting for equal treatment of African Americans. Also, saying “Justice Harlan’s dissent would enshrine American legal thought for decades to come” is dishonest as well. In what way did his dissent have any effect on legal decisions in the following decades? It wouldn’t be until 1954 that the Supreme Court would rule against segregation, but that decision was widely resisted by Southern state governments (AKA, the system in question).
Saying the Constitution protects minority rights is also blatantly a lie. In Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution stated that African Americans would be counted as 3/5 of a person. This is hardly a protection of minority rights. This is also another example of how you ignore very important pieces of evidence to suit your point. While the Bill of Rights does guarantee personal freedoms, those freedoms were only meant for a specific group of people, not for the entire population.
Probably your most absurd argument is that since black people have become famous somehow systemic racism doesn’t exist. What exactly does that prove? You use four names as if that says anything about the 42 million African Americans in the United States, once again ignoring important facts. Facts such as how African Americans are far less likely to earn more than their parents. Or how African Americans are far more likely to get harsher sentences for the same crime that a white person commits. You didn’t even mention these facts, much less try to dispute them.
When you say “its people…are the most tolerant on Earth,” you once again provide no evidence to prove your point. This country has experienced a 1,900% increase in hate crimes to Asian Americans in the past year. Is that tolerant? In 1982, Vincent Chin, an Asian man, was beaten to death by two white people. His murderers only received three years of probation, and NO jail time. Is that the equal protection under the law that you talk about? It doesn’t look like it to me.
All in all, this is an extremely dishonest article. None of your points were proven and you provided very shaky evidence, if any at all, to make your case.
Lillian • Feb 11, 2021 at 11:23 am
To the author of this piece, I challenge you to dig a little deeper and broaden your world view. You make an argument that the written law is not racist. But that is not the only way to be systemically racist. How those laws are applied unequally is also systemic racism. Your argument that minorities have reached middle-class wealth also does not disprove systemic racism. You openly cite a, “58% disparity between the average White American and the average Black American”. Doesn’t this make you think that there might be something causing that? Also, your argument that” The Bill of Rights was explicitly written to protect the people in the minority from the majority”, is factually accurate but you are missing a big component of historical context. It was to protect white men from white men. This document had to be amended a lot to include women and racial minorities. So with the existence of amendments can you at least admit that the document is not perfect in protecting people and still isn’t? Yes, it does a better job than others, but that’s the bare minimum to strive for. I have issues with your other arguments too but, these are just some things to think about.
I am not an expert. I am not a minority. But I read and I listen to those wiser than myself. I challenge you to try and see the other side of the story. It is far easier to see the world from your own viewpoint and never look around to see others. But life is not meant to be easy. I challenge you to read a book, watch a documentary, listen and ask questions because that is the only way we learn.