I was having a conversation about “systemic racism” and it took an unexpected though enlightening twist – let me explain.
I should preface these remarks by reminding my readers that I sit next to the aisle on the left side and I often vote with the other side of the aisle. Judging from their remarks, the others in this conversation were on both sides of the aisle and perhaps not as close to the aisle as me, in their leanings.
Our conversation began with the recent shooting of Republican Congressman at the baseball practice in Alexandria, VA. We were unanimous in our condemnation of the shooter and our gratitude that everyone (other than the shooter) will survive their injuries. We hope that the recoveries will be back to full and complete function.
I mentioned that I had seen a particularly poignant discussion on the AM Joy Show on MSNBC, on Saturday morning. The host, Joy Reid, was wondering if the events surrounding the incident might need some moral clarity so she turned to the Rev. Dr. William Barber for his thoughts and WOW, he had some really thought provoking things to add. I found the interview on Facebook and started playing it for the others. We weren’t far into it before some of the participants in my conversation became a bit agitated so our conversation turned to the source of that agitation.
It was a little warm for a while, but we stuck with it and started to find some common ideas. Those on the “right” were adamant in their protest against all the talk about systemic racism to the point of near denial that it exists at all. One person took up the argument that the whole voter rights thing was overblown because everyone has a driver’s license so what’s the big deal. When I pointed out the example of New York City where there are hundreds of thousands of people who have no need for a driver’s license and lots of rural parts of our Country where babies are born at home and no birth certificate is issued so a picture ID isn’t as common as he was thinking, he agreed to give the idea some further consideration.
At some point the conversation turned more personal for one of the participants and he declared himself not to be a “racist.” I told him that nobody was calling him one, but that didn’t mean that systemic racism doesn’t exist. No, systemic racism thrives on the apathy of society with little or no need for active “racists” to fuel its survival. Active “racism” is needed to get the ball rolling, but apathy is sufficient to keep it going.
And it is at this point when an AHA moment happened. One of the participants looked at me and said, “You feel guilty about this.” I had never really thought about it those terms, but he was right – I do feel guilty about the “racism” existing in our society. I don’t feel guilty because I somehow created it (though in my younger years I was more ignorant in these matters), but I am perhaps guilty of not doing enough to stop it. In other words, I feel guilty because I might be one of those apathetic members of society that perpetuate the “systemic racism” by not doing enough to stop it. And I wonder if this notion might explain some of the differences in thinking between the political “right” and “left” sides of the aisle? What do you think?
Further, I wonder if this idea might extend to other forms of prejudice in our society. And one last question to consider – Is it possible that the “personal responsibility” trait on the “right” and the “compassion” trait on the “left” are two sides of this same coin? More to chew on.
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