Systemic Racism IS Real. Just Not In The Way We’re Told.

 

I’ve changed my mind.

I have long argued, quoting Tim Scott, a Black Republican US Senator from South Carolina, that America is not a racist country. My own view is that “systemic racism” is a social construct detached from reality, divorced from American values, and fatally imbued with lethal doses of atheism and Marxism. It is used mostly as a cudgel for cultural and partisan political purposes. In other words, for political power. It is poorly understood by most Americans but widely taught and practiced in many of our institutions. 

Scott has consistently repeated that America is not a racist country (while admitting, as do I, that racism and racists exist) on multiple occasions. He said it again last night during his response to President Biden’s speech before a surreal, sparsely attended, socially distanced, and heavily-masked gathering of vaccinated Members of Congress and Biden Cabinet members, among a few others.

It did not take long for #UncleTim to trend on Twitter. If you’re on Twitter, go to the search field and type that, hit return, and see what shows up. Here’s an example:

So, it turns out to be true. Systemic racism in America IS real. It is just not from whom you think are racists. Read Bishop Swan’s Twitter feed for more examples of angry, race-based screeds.

Two more gems from Twitter.

Somehow, these anonymous Twitter accounts or posts don’t violate these terms of service.

“Hateful conduct: You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease. We also do not allow accounts whose primary purpose is inciting harm towards others on the basis of these categories.

“Hateful imagery and display names: You may not use hateful images or symbols in your profile image or profile header. You also may not use your username, display name, or profile bio to engage in abusive behavior, such as targeted harassment or expressing hate towards a person, group, or protected category.

‘Twitter’s mission is to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information, and to express their opinions and beliefs without barriers. Free expression is a human right – we believe that everyone has a voice, and the right to use it. Our role is to serve the public conversation, which requires representation of a diverse range of perspectives. 

“We recognize that if people experience abuse on Twitter, it can jeopardize their ability to express themselves. Research has shown that some groups of people are disproportionately targeted with abuse online. This includes; women, people of color, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual individuals, marginalized and historically underrepresented communities. For those who identify with multiple underrepresented groups, abuse may be more common, more severe in nature and more harmful.

“We are committed to combating abuse motivated by hatred, prejudice or intolerance, particularly abuse that seeks to silence the voices of those who have been historically marginalized. For this reason, we prohibit behavior that targets individuals with abuse based on protected category.”  

I guess these don’t apply to hateful or abusive comments directed at a US Senator who is not only a “Person of Color” (POC), but is a Republican. Or perhaps because of it.

Americans are increasingly learning about “critical race theory” (CRT), which is behind this new racism. Thanks to independent authors, media producers, researchers, and writers like Christopher Rufo and James Lindsay we are discovering just how different critical race theory is from what the late Dr. Martin Luther King gave his life for – a colorblind society. You know the thing.

CRT is the belief that America is built on a bedrock of white supremacy. America was founded, allegedly, to protect Black slavery. CRT teaches us that we are not to be treated and respected as individuals, but as members of a race, or a group. We are told that white people are, by virtue of their skin color, oppressors. People of color are, by virtue of their skin color, victims of that oppression – the oppressed.

And this has now been extended into other categories, including gender, age, income, and even your native or first language. Your intersectionality score determines your degree of victimhood.

Do you really think demands for reparations will stop at race?

Critical race theory has become ubiquitous in American society, from our schools and churches to our workplaces, where we are treated to mandatory “unconscious bias training,” all under the rubric of “diversity and inclusion.” And we’ve seen it manifest itself in several ways. Ultimately, buying into CRT means you’re “woke.” The irony and hypocrisy at fighting racism with racism is completely lost on these true believers.

For the record, “diversity” and “inclusion” are fine. Heaven and Hell are both going to be diverse and inclusive for very different reasons. 

Perjorative outbursts directed Wednesday night at Senator Scott are just the latest manifestation of woke-ism. It is all too predictable, especially now that the masks are off. Christopher Rufo:

In September 2020, then-President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning federal agencies and contractors from conducting training sessions based on critical race theory. Specifically, the order banned “race or sex stereotyping,” “race or sex scapegoating,” and teaching that “an individual’s moral character is necessarily determined by his or her race or sex.” In short, the executive order made sure that all training sessions complied with the basic framework of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: there is no place for racism in the federal government. 

In a healthy society, this would be uncontroversial. After all, until just recently, Americans of all political backgrounds seemed to agree that racial stereotyping, scapegoating, and harassment are unacceptable, especially in the workplace. However, with the rise of the academic movement known as critical race theory (CRT), progressives in academia and the bureaucracy have revived the ugly concepts of race essentialism and race-based guilt, arguing that white Americans can be reduced to the quality of “whiteness” and must undergo rigorous reeducation to atone for their inborn “white privilege,” “white fragility,” and “internalized racial superiority.”

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris reversed Trump’s executive order immediately upon taking office. This was a fulfilment of their campaign promises to stress “equity” and oppose “race-neutral policies.” Articles have proliferated in the press celebrating this reversal of Trump’s supposedly “damaging” and “harmful” “position on racism.”  The Biden/Harris regime has embraced the philosophy of critical race theory, which explicitly rejects the American principles of individual rights, meritocracy, and equality under the law. This administration has shown itself committed to apologias for CRT, and we can expect much more of the same in the years to come.

So thanks to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, among others, CRT is back with a vengeance, and your tax dollars are being used to promote it. It is time to fight back. And it starts with acknowledging that critical race theory is systemic racism, defined, and calling it out when practiced. Name it and shame it.

Published in General
This post was promoted to the Main Feed by a Ricochet Editor at the recommendation of Ricochet members. Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 13 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. Gossamer Cat Coolidge
    Gossamer Cat
    @GossamerCat

    Kelly D Johnston: Heaven and Hell are both going to be diverse and inclusive for very different reasons. 

    That’s a good one!

    • #1
  2. Hang On Member
    Hang On
    @HangOn

    You lived through the Obama administration and it took you to now to understand? Obama was a complete racist. Joe Biden is the current racist in chief. Systemic racism is rife in this country and has been for a very, very long time. Affirmative action is nothing other than a racist policy and has been around since the 1970s. Universities are the centers of racism and have been for a long time. When you have college unions on the basis of race, that is racism. When you have dorms on the basis of race, that is racism. When you teach racism as universities do, that is racism. White left-wingers are total and complete racists.

    • #2
  3. Dotorimuk Coolidge
    Dotorimuk
    @Dotorimuk

    Systematic racism tells you white people have no soul.

    Systematic racism tells you white people can’t dance.

    Systematic racism tells you black people are inherently cooler than whites.

    Systematic racism tells you only black people invented rock and roll.

    Systematic racism tells you the ancient Egyptians were black.

    Systematic racism tells you that they flew in aircraft.

    Systematic racism teaches that only whites conquered territory or held slaves.

    Systematic racism tells you all white people are racists.

    Systematic racism tells you that you can’t be a racist unless you are white.

    I think one point of view has a much more developed system of racism than the other, and it is supported every day in culture and in the media/Left.

    Etc., Etc., Etc.

    Tim Scott was fantastic.

    • #3
  4. Kelly D Johnston Inactive
    Kelly D Johnston
    @SoupGuy

    Hang On (View Comment):

    You lived through the Obama administration and it took you to now to understand? Obama was a complete racist. Joe Biden is the current racist in chief. Systemic racism is rife in this country and has been for a very, very long time. Affirmative action is nothing other than a racist policy and has been around since the 1970s. Universities are the centers of racism and have been for a long time. When you have college unions on the basis of race, that is racism. When you have dorms on the basis of race, that is racism. When you teach racism as universities do, that is racism. White left-wingers are total and complete racists.

    Hi, genius. I’ve been all over this for several years. This is called ‘seizing an opportunity’ to drive home the point. I’m sorry you lack the sophistication to see that. Go troll someone else.

     

    • #4
  5. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    I know we live in a systemic racist country.  It just is not racist in the way the libs say.

    • #5
  6. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    It’s time to cancel the MLK holiday and tear down the memorial.  His dream is deader than he is.  CRT is a complete repudiation of everything he stood for.

     

    • #6
  7. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio…
    @ArizonaPatriot

    Kelly D Johnston (View Comment):

    Hang On (View Comment):

    You lived through the Obama administration and it took you to now to understand? Obama was a complete racist. Joe Biden is the current racist in chief. Systemic racism is rife in this country and has been for a very, very long time. Affirmative action is nothing other than a racist policy and has been around since the 1970s. Universities are the centers of racism and have been for a long time. When you have college unions on the basis of race, that is racism. When you have dorms on the basis of race, that is racism. When you teach racism as universities do, that is racism. White left-wingers are total and complete racists.

    Hi, genius. I’ve been all over this for several years. This is called ‘seizing an opportunity’ to drive home the point. I’m sorry you lack the sophistication to see that. Go troll someone else.

    Kelly, I don’t think that this is a fair response.

    You say, in this comment, that you’ve been “all over this for several years,” but you opened the OP by saying that you’ve changed your mind.  These seem a bit inconsistent.

    If I understand your comment about “seizing an opportunity,” you seem to be saying that you’ve known about this for years and years, and you’re pretending to have changed your mind in order as a rhetorical technique to encourage others to change their minds.  Is this accurate, or am I misunderstanding your meaning?

    I agree with Hang On that the problems of anti-white racism have been with us for a very long time, since the adoption of Black Privilege — oops, I mean so-called affirmative action — around 1970.  The race hustlers have been with us for a long time.  I think that it should have been pretty obvious that Barack Obama was a race hustler, though he disguised it somewhat well.

    I do agree that the irrationality and anti-white racism of the BLM and Wokeist types has become worse over the past year or so.  It’s sensible that people who didn’t previously notice the nefarious nature of their agenda, in prior years, would notice it now.

    Kelly, I generally think that you, Hang On, and I are in general accord about the facts.  It does put us in a pickle.  A number of people seem to be waking up to a false narrative of white-on-black oppression, and noticing that we’ve actually been living in a culture that systematically favors blacks over whites in a number of ways.  It’s good that they’re realizing this, but if we respond as Hang On did — and as I’m inclined to do sometimes — then we come across as saying something like: “So you finally see the truth, you idiot!”  That’s not helpful either.

    • #7
  8. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Sadly, the existence of one racist person confirms the theory that our entire system is racist, according to the left . . .

    • #8
  9. Samuel Block Support
    Samuel Block
    @SamuelBlock

    I’ve been having similar thoughts elsewhere. The constant talk of white supremacy makes me wince, but the left has a lot of supremacists who are white. I think it’s why so many black people on the left are sure of racism’s ubiquity. They may well think, if these are the better white people, then conservatives must be klan-like.

    • #9
  10. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Samuel Block (View Comment):

    I’ve been having similar thoughts elsewhere. The constant talk of white supremacy makes me wince, but the left has a lot of supremacists who are white. I think it’s why so many black people on the left are sure of racism’s ubiquity. They may well think, if these are the better white people, then conservatives must be klan-like.

    I think you’re on to something here. 

    • #10
  11. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    Stad (View Comment):

    Sadly, the existence of one racist person confirms the theory that our entire system is racist, according to the left . . .

    Yes and even if someday there is not a single racist white person in the USA, the fact remains that we all must offer appeasement and reparation to people of color for something that the ancestors of 6% of all living white Americans did to enslaved humans over a hundred years and fifty seven years ago.

    • #11
  12. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    Stad (View Comment):

    Sadly, the existence of one racist person confirms the theory that our entire system is racist, according to the left . . .

    Yes and even if someday there is not a single racist white person in the USA, the fact remains that we all must offer appeasement and reparation to people of color for something that the ancestors of 6% of all living white Americans did to enslaved humans over a hundred years and fifty seven years ago.

    And there were free blacks who owned slaves.  An incredibly small number, to be sure.

    The only way to ensure there is not one racist white person left is to get rid of all white people.

    • #12
  13. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Stad (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    Stad (View Comment):

    Sadly, the existence of one racist person confirms the theory that our entire system is racist, according to the left . . .

    Yes and even if someday there is not a single racist white person in the USA, the fact remains that we all must offer appeasement and reparation to people of color for something that the ancestors of 6% of all living white Americans did to enslaved humans over a hundred years and fifty seven years ago.

    And there were free blacks who owned slaves. An incredibly small number, to be sure.

    The only way to ensure there is not one racist white person left is to get rid of all white people.

    We could take a poll, but it would probably be pretty depressing. 

    • #13
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.