Do you understand what makes systemic racism different than racism. Systemic racism exists where the laws and institutions support racism. So for example, affirmative action which makes it harder for Asians to get accepted in college is "systemic" racism. At the institutional level race is being used to make decisions. Those decisions impact the opportunities of those that benefit from it and hurt those that are "victim" to it.
In general, I see very little evidence of systemic racism. Much of the evidence produced attempts to use irrelevant correlations rather than causation as evidence of racism. For example, when you eliminate all non racial differences in compensation between African American and white men including education, geographic region, experience, etc., the observed correlated race wage gap collapses from over 19% to less than 2% and in fact Asian women earn more than white men. So unless someone can explain why employers discriminate in favor of Asian women, the argument collapses.
When you look at African American deaths by police relative to white men, you see a disproportionate number of African Americans killed by police when you correlate that to population statistics... but is that the right measure. When you correlate it to violent crime, you see a disproportionate number of white males being killed. Which is the better yardstick?
While males are far more likely to experience excessive use of police force than African American females... does that mean police are systemically discriminating against white men versus African American women? Or is gender more likely driving the behavior?
If profiling suggests that young African American males represent a greater danger to police than old African American males is the treatment of age as a point of discrimination wrong or simply common sense.
I say these things as an old white male with five out of my six grandchildren being African American. My wife is Asian. My wife, children, and grandchildren are all aware of racism and have experienced it... but they simply do not see "systemic racism", it tends to be individuals who behave in racist manners. The exception is affirmative action.
However, there are some issues that need to be explored and could prove me wrong. First, African American women are more than two times more likely to have an abortion than white women. Does this suggest "systemic" racism or personal choices? Are these women being targeted by organizations that benefit from abortions or are they simply making their services available?
Inner city schools are failing and have been failing for years especially in African American neighborhoods. Poor Jewish neighborhoods of the past often had the best public schools in the city. Anyone who grew up in NYC knows about the amazing inner city Jewish schools there. But since African Americans took over the neighborhoods the schools have begun failing. Why is that true especially when we know the single biggest predictor of economic success is education?
Are Democratically controlled inner cities using African Americans as a tool to retain power... if not why have they not fixed the schools African American children need to escape poverty.
Studies show unemployment rates of African Americans and whites slightly favor African Americans once you adjust for education, yet dramatically favor whites when you don't. But why is it necessary to adjust for education... what is going on?
For all the noise about systemic racism, the primary culprit when you look at racial differences is education whether in poor rural areas or inner cities. It drives nearly all the observed differences between African Americans and other races.
Nothing illustrates that more than the fact that the most economically successful "sub group" in the US are Nigerian immigrants who on average come to this country having attained higher education levels than any other sub group in America... their skin color does not pose a barrier to their success... instead their education almost assures it...
