Redemption Begins When We Stop Calling People “Racist” and Start Dealing With “Systemic Racism” April 30, 2021 Vol. XIV, No. 7 2:13 pm “Systemic racism,” yes. “Racist,” no. On Wednesday, Sen. Tim Scott, an African American Republican from South Carolina, said during his response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address, “Hear me
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Redemption Begins When We Stop Calling People “Racist” and Start Dealing With “Systemic Racism”
April 30, 2021 Vol. XIV, No. 7 2:13 pm
“Systemic racism,” yes. “Racist,” no.
On Wednesday, Sen. Tim Scott, an African American Republican from South Carolina, said during his response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address, “Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country.” On Thursday, President Biden, in an interview with TODAY’s Craig Melvin, was asked to comment on Scott’s statement. “I don’t think America’s racist,” Biden said, “but I think the overhang from all of the Jim Crow (laws), and before that slavery, have had a cost, and we have to deal with it.”
Those two statements this week by Republican Sen. Scott and Democratic President Biden are potentially transformative in bridging America’s racial divide. They allow us to begin to accept the fact that although there are still racial advantages and disadvantages in America that need to be dealt with, the nation is not a nation of evil racists. “Systemic racism,” yes. “Racist,” no.
The distinction between the terms “systemic racism” and “racist” is well illustrated by former President Jimmy Carter, born October 1, 1924, in his book, An Hour Before Daylight, about his racial indoctrination as a young boy growing up on a farm in South Georgia.
President Carter’s personal story helps us see that a society racially segregated by the law of the land and social custom is a systemically racist society. But it also helps us see that not all members of a systemically racist society are racists. Was Jimmy Carter a racist? No.
Kept apart by social custom and the law of the land
Jimmy Carter did not hate the Black people of his day, but he participated in a systemically racist society that gave him privileges and opportunities denied to Blacks. Here are excerpts from his book:
“Our two races, although inseparable in our daily lives, were kept apart by social custom, misinterpretation of the Holy Scriptures, and the unchallenged law of the land as mandated by the United States Supreme Court.”
Carter says that throughout his boyhood and youth, “…the political and social dominance of whites was an accepted fact, never challenged or even debated, so far as I knew, by white liberals or black protestors.”
Most 20th Century Americans were not filled with racial hatred, an implied characteristic of the term racist. Rather, like Carter, most were simply members of a systemically racist society founded on social custom, misinterpretation of the Holy Scriptures, and the unchallenged law of the land.
Most 21st Century Americans are not filled with racial hatred either, yet the racial divide continues. So, how do we bridge the racial divide in America?
So, how do we bridge the racial divide in America?
In the interest of bipartisan progress on issues of race, we must first decouple the terms “racist” and “systemic racism.” Why? Because most of our relationships with each other are more influenced by social custom than racial hostility.
In order to bridge the racial divide in America, Democrats must join President Biden in accepting the fact that most Americans, including the conservatives, are not hate-filled racists and therefore should not be called racists, a word that implies racial hatred.
It is equally important for Republicans to accept the fact that social customs and business practices that favor one race over another is a form of systemic racism that needs to be dealt with. As Sen. Tim Scott said Wednesday night, “Believe me, I know our healing is not finished.”
In order to bridge the racial divide in America, we must limit our racially sensitive arguments to public policy ideas. It is not OK to belittle each other with name calling simply because we disagree on the best policy for ending systemic racism. For example, once you call someone a racist, the opportunity for constructive dialogue ends. Why? Because you do not negotiate with a racist any more than you negotiate with a terrorist! Right? “You’re a racist!” Boom! Conversation over.
In order to bridge the racial divide in America, we must talk openly and honestly about systemic racism and it’s terrible aftermath in the United States in terms of what “we” did as a nation, “our” mistakes of the past. Once we think we have greater moral authority to judge other Americans on the subject of race, we lose the trust of those we seek to persuade.
Many Americans sincerely believe that we must work just as diligently to identify and eliminate well-intentioned government programs that they think have created more harm than good as we work to identify and eliminate cultural systemic racism in America. The future of Black children will not be improved without addressing all sources of destruction of their potential, whether it be racism, systemic racism, or well-intentioned government programs.
Finally, we would do well to weigh the closing thoughts of Sen. Tim Scott, who said on Wednesday night, “Original sin is never the end of the story. Not in our souls, and not for our nation.”
“The real story is always redemption,” he concluded. Redemption. That’s the bridge.
Redemption begins when we stop calling people “racist” and start dealing with “systemic racism.”
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John N. Davis
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