Systemic Racism is Real
Video makes the argument (which I agree with) that there have always been laws that disadvantaged people of color in the US. The video cites how wealth accumulation for black people (well, really for non-whites overall) was systematically hobbled through property laws, lending practices, and the tying of school budgets to property taxes.
I wanted to post this because there were more than a few comments floating around claiming the opposite. I hope that those who feel that systematic racism is a myth will take the time to view the video and at least give it some thought.
No one wants riots, but you can't wipe away centuries of slavery, followed by a century of laws restricting property ownership and society-wide hurdles to education, employment, and social programs with a wave of the hand. Like it or not, much of our individual successes are based on a plurality of factors. Without detracting from one's own merits and hard work, we must realize that individual successes are quite linked to our parents' economic situation, the educational opportunities made available to us throughout our lives, and the financial resources we had access to.
We are all trying to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. But some started off with prior generations' bootlessness.
Anyone surprised that this would end up being about property laws? Take your mask off Karl Marx.
has zero to do with socialism or communism or capitalism. The video chronicles the unjust property laws which literally made it illegal for black people to own property, and provided federal funding for development provided that they did not sell property to black people. Suggest you check your ignorance a moment and learn something.
In fact, the video discusses how there is a knee-jerk reaction to discussing systemic racism by saying those pointing out that such systematic racism exists are vilified as anti-capitalist, welfare seekers, etc. You have in fact, proven that point magnificently.
Do those laws exist anymore?
Jumping to conclusions too hastily don't you think?
I don't think there was anything in there that suggested that OP didn't believe in property rights.
Yeah, he totally didn't bring up property laws and taxes as evidence of racism.
Explains why Indian Americans consistently get it done in terms of income and don't complain
Totally different things. You are comparing apples and shrimp. You are comparing a cream of the crop (wealthy and educated) immigrant group, often filtered by immigration policies and which has not faced longstanding systematic racism (I'm not talking about your milder racism, but longstanding laws) with a broad population, that was systematically disenfranchised for 400 years. Totally different things. And that's not to negate the struggles of Indian immigrants, but the two things are too different to be able to compare.
There's 2 flaws in your argument:
Firstly, Indian immigration to the US is relatively recent, with most Indian Americans being 1st or 2nd generation. Most are able to make the move from India to US as a result of (1) financial ability to do so, or (2) by virtue of holding higher-level education in a sought-after field. The average education level for Indian immigrants is masters degree level education. See link below. Hence you are literally comparing the top educated product of a 1.5 bn person nation with the general population of black people in the USA. That's quintessential selection bias. If you had compared to the overall India population you might have had more of a leg to stand on, but as it is you're holding out the small % of Indians that are able to immigrate to the US as a representative of the whole.
https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2018-03-19/most-immigrants-outpace-americans-when-it-comes-to-education-with-a-big-exception
Second, you're entirely ignoring the historical effect of 400 of systematic disenfranchisement, slavery, legal exclusion from property ownership, legal exclusion from obtaining education or working in many professions (until recently). It is not possible to ignore that historical context at all.
Indians were also oppressed by the British for like 200 years.
I am glad you created this topic. It would have been better if you created it under your own username. Unless, you are going to say something outlandishly offensive, there is no reason to post anonymously.
Systemic racism does exist. We have made progress as a country but the battle is not over. Unfortunately, over the past few years, the progress has slowed a bit and perhaps has even gone backward.
I am confident that we as a country will get back on the path towards a society where all people have the same experiences and opportunities regardless of race, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation.
If you want to get rid of hurdles to employment, education, wealth and social programs then a good place to start would be looking inward.
How do you expect to succeed in any of those categories when children are overwhelmingly brought into single mother households (nearly 70%), when you have the second highest teenage pregnancy rate (28 per 1,000), the highest propensity to commit violent crime (13/50 anyone?), and third highest high school dropout rate (6.5%).
And it's not like there's no programs to help this. There's affirmative action(lol), black only scholarships and grants, black only college prep services, black only colleges, black only club and support groups, and black only nonprofits just to name a few things.
Systemic racism lol give me a break. Black people are the most supported minority group in this country.
It's also worth mentioning we literally live in a country where many of our biggest celebrity athletes (LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Michael Jordan, Stephan Curry, Tiger Woods) and musicians (Beyonce, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Jay Z) are black. In Texas, a state that has been hard Republican for almost it's entire history (Carter snuck one in), the mayors of it's two largest cities (Houston & Dallas) are both black. Our House of Representatives has had 153 elected black members in it's history so far and let's not forget we literally had a black President for 8 straight years quite recently.
If the US is systematically racist, explain how ANY of this would be remotely possible?
Easy answer, it's NOT. But Democrats will perpetuate the negative stereotypes through their bigotry of low expectations because if you force a population to continuously see itself as a helpless victim, it will continue to vote for the party telling them that they'll wave a magic wand and fix all their problems. Funny how Democrat-proposed welfare and lowered policing has resulted in the most impoverished and violence-ridden black communities being located in almost exclusively Democrat-run cities. #BLEXIT
FYI, Affirmative Action is part of systemic racism. It's not meant to be but it is. It actually hurts people it's supposed to help. It's like treating someone with pain with heroine instead of curing the root causes of the pain.
In a sense, all those programs you mentioned that "helps" Black people are actually part of systemic racism. Why? Because a lot of them actually end up hurting Black people even more.
Oh wow, you found a single YouTube video that discusses things that have never been brought up before!!! I can't believe no one has EVER thought to vocalize these stances in a way that so succinctly proves how systematic racism is unquestionably real and how everyone that says otherwise is an idiot. I bet there's not a single YouTube video that addresses literally every single counterpoint to you've brought up while showing how each one is either misrepresented or just outright false. YOU should run for President! Such enlightened wisdom could bring this country together and stop the mean orange man in his tracks!!!
I suddenly feel so much empathy for the peaceful protestors that peacefully burned down the town near where I have family members living and peacefully killed a fascist who was literally just walking down the street in Portland the other night.
The video was brought as a stimulus for conversation.
All you brought was vitriol and sarcasm. Thanks for your value-added contribution.
How about these for a contribution then. Ignoring the fact that Shapiro himself has a very unattractive personality and cringe-worthy video titles, his arguments are logically sound. The left-wing is literally promoting clear as day racism but thinks that turning it into a means of public self-flagellation while they maintain a "Holier than thou" attitude towards anyone that disagrees somehow makes it acceptable.
National Museum of African American History And Culture Releases AWFUL Display - Why everything that makes up Western society is somehow white and racist
Can't wait to hear your nuanced response.
Edit: Just came across this one specifically addressing police confrontations. Ben Shapiro DEBUNKS The Myth Of Systemic Police Racism - And in case you get tired of listening to just his nasally voice, here's
"fiery but mostly peaceful protests"
https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/systematic-racism-exists-just-no…
Like I keep saying, systemic racism exists. Just not in ways you think it does.
Segregatiom was systemic racism. But so were public housing programs (supported by the so-called "liberals") that led to Segregation 2.0. Modern day systemic racism doesn't only include things that impact Black and Hispanic people. It also includes racial quotas and quota adjacent programs like Affirmative Action.
"Liberals" want to talk about systemic racism but they refuse to acknowledge its existence for people they hastily label "privileged". All that while "conservatives" just stick their heads in sand treating it as a myth. One side is being a hypocrite, the other blinded by stuborness.
I agree with you. Programs like affirmative action, which seek to undo the damage, are also controversial because they too are a form of racism. It's problematic as well, and no one knows the right path forward.
We DO know the right path forward. Our politicians and activists choose not to focus on them because - 1) doing so don't win votes, 2) is difficult, or 3) they themselves are uninformed/misinformed.
It's not difficult to identify what the root causes of inequality are - lack of educational resources, lack of awareness of different life choices, lack of connections to people with resources, and the financial inability to afford certain choices even if they are aware. And we already know how to tackle each of them.
Outreach programs that let people know they have more choices in life than they think, skill building programs that make people qualified for such choices (ie. Coding camps that focus on low income students), provision of educational resources like books and facilities that promote a learning environment both in and out of school (libraries, vocational training, etc...), mentorship programs, and finally a robust social safety net that supports when people are downtrodden while not incentivizing people to become complacent and live off welfare.
Admittedly, we are still debating on what a good social safety net looks like. But issue is that people tend to not understand the purpose of social safety neta. So we have this futile debate over things like healthcare. We're treating technical problems as if they are ethical and political problems.
Trying to convince some people on WSO that systemic racism exists is like trying to convince people a long time ago that the world is round. It is not going to go anywhere. You do not know who you are trying to persuade. For all you know you could be debating an older guy from the south, who is fixed in his ways. You have a chance with the younger people and women, though.
Echo what the guy said above about looking inward. Look at all our black inner cities: high crime, unemployment, drug use, single parents, low education achievement in children--all this going on for decades. Is the government or any other external power forcing them to be like this? I don’t think so. Meanwhile, look at every single other "group" in America (Chinese, Irish, Italians, Jews) that faced centuries of oppression in their homelands and severe bigotry in America, and look how far they progressed during the 19th and 20th centuries. Yes blacks faced slavery, jim crow, and redlining, but the Chinese were barred from entering the labor market in the 1800s, the Irish were oppressed and killed by the British for centuries and discriminated against by employers in the US ("no irish need apply"), and the Jews... this post is already too long so I won't even get started on everything they faced. Black americans were progressing just like these people throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s (matter of fact, the first female millionaire in the US was a black woman), but this progress slowly stopped after all the affirmative action, "police reform," and welfare of the 60s. Every single other group in America pulled themselves up from nothing through their own private initiatives, not because a few anointed politicians felt generous one day and became their lord and savior. Btw, the Irish were the slowest to move up socioeconomically out of all the groups I mentioned, and yet they were the most overrepresented in all facets of American government. It doesn't take rocket science to see that most progress in America is attributable to personal responsibility, a lawful society, free enterprise, and strong support from family and local community. I'm going to be frank. I don't see these traits in a lot of black communities today. And I can't even blame them with all this "it's okay, you're the victim" philosophy that’s spewed by people in power.
btw hi Earthwalker
Idk why this is getting so much MS. Perhaps this proves my point about lack of critical thinking and ignorance of nuance is an everybody issue not a left or right issue.
OP makes a good point about the existence of systemic racism throughout the US history. It has existed, and it exists. All the ill-designed programs for URMs and Obama being the president for 8 years are NOT evidence against the existence of systemic racism.
Sure OP used evidence that are invalid, but I can point you to real valid evidence for systemic racism. Some of the evidence being invalid doesn't make something nonexistent/invalid..
OP might have used evidence that's invalid, but surely he didn't use them as justifications for ridiculous ideas like "defunding the police" , "white people paying reparations for black people" , and the likes.
It is jersey behavior.
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