On systemic racism
I may be a white Frenchman but, as Jimmy Kimmel recently put it, I’m the only one here, so let me just say a few things about systemic racism, specifically in the US, and in many ways also in general. Obviously, feel free to tune out and go read other (more) informed bloggers and/or see TikTok videos of cats doing weird stuff. Whatever flows your boat.
While the current movement following the tragic death of George Floyd has had an immediate (positive) consequence in the fact that all police officers involved in said death have now been charged to a more or less reasonable degree, and while the accompanying societal reaction embodied by #BlackoutTuesday will have some effect on the mindset of people of all creeds, races and origins who were remotely watching the news, it seems unclear whether more (positive) social or political decisions are to be expected under the current administration. Instead, Trump seems intent on “playing it dumb”, focusing on the looters rather than the protesters and clearly offering no solution of any kind to put a dent on the key factor underlying Mr. Floyd’s assassination: racism, of the systemic kind.
To be fair, even a better, smarter and more constructive administration would still have a hard time coming up with sound solutions to this problem — with lasting effects. For a sadly simple fact: solving (or rather attempting to solve) systemic racism involves deep, costly long term plans that conflict with political deadlines. Let us delve for a moment in what these initiatives could look like, and why it is so hard to see them implemented. As many are aware, the issue with systemic racism is that it is inherited: in the US, the bedrock of racism against the African-American community is quite obviously intertwined with the “original sin” the country was founded on: slavery. While the various elements of that phenomenon are well known, one should not underestimate the impact that historical fact still has on modern US society: only 150 years ago, African-Americans were for the most part not free; only 50 years ago, African-Americans were for the most part segregated against. These are a few generations away we are talking about here: that is very recent history. And it means that access to wealth and education for that community only became (somewhat) possible in the last 50 years alone, while the rest of the (non-native) population had had a 200-year head start. Talk about inherent inequality…
Besides these obvious constraints to the social and economic development of the African-American community in the US, the other equally known — and deeply related — factor is racial bias. Because that community was stigmatised for so long in the country, was effectively rendered incapable of growing in the many ways the rest of the population could, behaviors remain to this day which convey an inherent bias in the way members of other communities act towards African-Americans. This comes up in recruitment, where African-Americans stand a lower chance of getting hired, in the way police officers will more likely stop an African-American individual in the street for no apparent motive, in the way white people will more likely behave when walking past an African-American individual in that same street — perhaps with more caution and/or fear… These are all biases against a specific community, conveying systemic racism and hindering African-Americans’ possibilities for development and growth in innumerable ways.*
Potential solutions and/or improvements
That being said, what could be the potential solutions and/or improvements to relieve the plight of the African-American community? Easy and hard at the same time: important, long term investments in the tools that can elevate any group of people in society. That includes education, first and foremost: schools in impoverished African-American neighborhoods (as well as any impoverished neighborhoods for that matter) should receive at least the same amount of funding better schools in more affluent (and whiter) neighborhoods get, if not more. That would allow them to hire more teachers, buy new equipment, develop after school programs… all these things that shape up a career — and a life — in the long run. That also includes infrastructure: roads, utilities, transport should all be at least as good as in other neighborhood to improve safety and overall conditions in day-to-day life. And that includes all public services such as police, firefighters, postmen… which should also be at least on par with those in other areas. In other words, improving everything surrounding African-Americans, so that they can gradually increase their odds at achieving everything else. And it all starts with education.
This is where the political issue comes up: these are billions, probably trillions of dollars that are required to undertake such initiatives at a federal level. They therefore need political, congressional, presidential approval. Even if said elected officials agree with the underlying objective — which was significantly more true in previous administrations, lest we forget — they will have a hard time agreeing on its implementation because it implies short term costs (and taxes), which are never popular, for long term benefits, which will not be seen under their administration(s). Which is why no official truly tried their hand at this in decades (ever?) and why it will take a unique politician (or rather group of politicians) to do so.
It is not impossible: what Abraham Lincoln and Lindon B. Johnson did in their time was thought by many as impossible. Yet, slavery eventually ended, and desegregation became a reality, although it couldn’t solve all of the bigger, systemic issues we are now talking about. Let us hope that the next administration (come November?) tackles this, and comes up with yet another landmark piece of legislation that fundamentally improves the situation…
* Quite obviously, such biases are not only felt towards the African-American community: Native Americans, members of the Latino community, Asian-Americans all suffer from varying degrees of racial bias. But it could be argued that none feel it in such a blatant way than the African-American community (see: prison population statistics, police brutality statistics, etc). Which is not to say that racism against other stigmatised communities should not be dwarfed as well…