The Systemic Racism Myth Debunked

When I ask someone to tell me what systemic racism is or how to see it or recognize it by example I get the same few.  They don't hold up.

All the examples apply to poor white, Asian and Hispanic people. 

If you live in a poor zip code, your school is probably underfunded.  That's going to make it hard to get a good education.  This happens in schools all across the USA.  The lack of a good education holds people back.  Look at parts of white West Virginia and Tennessee. Those white kids are many times are as litereate as the worst graduates of the CPS.  So is it systemic racism if it applies to poor white kids?

I hear a lot about outcomes.  That people try to make it in life and it seems like some do better than others. That happens with every race of people.  I can take you to western IL and show you people who's outcomes are worse than the worst of what you see in any black neighborhood.  Is the fact that there are variation in outcomes is not an example of Systemic racism.

So to prove their point they point to the people in the legal system that may be biased but don't realize it.  On the other hand there are many who bend over backwards to give people that might have been prejudiced against a leg up.  If there are people prejudiced against black or hispanics in the legal system, I would call that RACISM, but not systemic.

Then there are examples of people black, white, brown, red or yellow who might claim systemic racism because they get behind.  Say they get a speeding ticket they can't afford to pay, then they lose their licence then get picked up for driving without a licence and then can't get to work and end up in a bad way. That happens all the time, but it's not racism.  It happens to everybody.  Hispanics suffer more than others.

Many teachers, cops and judges treat young black males differently.  They are a class unto themselves.  They are the ones doing the bulk of bad things.  But is that systemic racism?  I don't think so.  Race would be one of about 15 vaiables to check before you could call it systemic.

Of course it's hard not to think of single mothers, fatherless children, inferior section 8 housing that forces people to live around others without peers that can improve you, just bring you down.  Gangs come from that.  Isn't that the same as a poor white kid with a single mom, no dad in section 8 housing?  Or hispanic?

Was there ever systemic racism?  Sure when the Jim Crow and Apartheid (and segregation) were in force as law it fostered such.  But there are a lot of years since then.  There has actually been systemic countermeasures.  Preferential treatment in education (college), Special Training for employment programs, Admissions to all sorts of programs closed to most white folks.  That's pretty systemic.


No one disagrees that racism exists everywhere there are people around the world.  Starting life at the bottom of the well for any reason will have more trouble climbing out.  But that isn't systemic.  In fact if you are a qualified black man about 30 for anything, there are large corporations begging to hire you.   They have quota's.

Sure, there is driving while black and being shadowed by a store security person when you are black. That's not systemic, that's what happens.  I was a teenage boy and teens in my day loved to shoplift.  If as a teen growing up I went into a store I was shadowed.  Not race, young punk kid.  I also was pulled over from time to time to "Check my registration".  I was 16 drove a fast car and looked like trouble.  Pattern recognition, not systemic racism.

Systemic racism as a cry is whatever the race baiters, the politicians and the Woke folks say it is.  Uncle Ben and his Aunt Jemima.  They tell black folks how to feel and define what systemic racism is.  Look at the insanity on the street and the monuments that have fallen. 

I hate to mention it because I am not a fan, but we elected a mostly black president twice.  If systemic racism was rampant.. how did that happen.  Or is that an example of the absence of systemic racism.

The cry of systemic racism actually makes the problem worse.  It is actually the most racist thing anyone can accuse a whole race of people of.  White People are all the same, Systemically Racist.
That idea and attitude has no potential to improve relations.  It is in fact the N word when you claim that all whites are racist (systemically).  It is about as damaging as the idea of White Privilege. You can't build relationship on such accusation.  THE N WORD!

You can't decide NOT to be Racist. It's impossible.

I don't pick up snakes.  I don't fear them, but I avoid them.    Not all snakes are dangerous or venomous, but some are and I would rather not be bitten.  The reason?  Pattern Recognition.

I won't go in a pond in Florida occupied by alligators.  It's common sense.  I know some people have an alligator for a pet.  Not me. I'm not afraid, I just don't want to be eaten alive.  I have never been bit by one, but I am aware and pattern recognition tells me to avoid them.  It is said that Adolf Hitler had a pet alligators.  It just died at 80 some years of age.  Not for me.

When I am swimming in the ocean and someone says there are sharks nearby I am wary.  I don't intentionally swim with the sharks. It seems like a bad idea.  Sharks are dangerous.  I have not personally been attacked by a shark, but I don't want to be. The thing is not ALL sharks are dangerous.  Many are innocuous.  BUT... I don't want to see the sharks ID when swimming.  So I avoid them. Pattern Recognition.

When clouds form and thunder and lighting starts, I find a place with a roof over my head.  If there are tornadoes in the forecast I am wary.  I could stand out in the rain, but pattern recognition tells me to get inside.

If I see a pit bull with it's owner, I am wary and keep my distance.  There are too many stories about pit bulls and people being mauled.  I have not been mauled.  Pit bull owners will tell you that not all pit bulls are vicious.  I believe that but I don't know how to sort that from what I have heard. So I go with pattern recognition to stay safe.

If I see a family with a burka I don't try to engage them in a conversation.  I don't offer to buy the husband a beer.  I know there are many Muslims that are wonderful people.  I know a few,, but when I encounter one, I leave them alone.  Not all Muslims want to kill me, but some do.  I have seen the videos in Dearborn MI.  Death to America they say.  If I knew more Muslims personally maybe my perspective built on pattern recognition would change.  I know watching the Muslims beheading folks in the middle east built the wall higher for me.  I can't go there because of Pattern Recognition.

SO

Police that encounter bad guys in their job are imprinted with pattern recognition.  If they work in black neighborhoods, most of the bad guys are black. So a pattern is established.  Even among black cops the pattern is ingrained and when they see a black guy driving, walking or in a store they are wary.  Experience that created pattern recognition has programed their brains for suspicion based on skin color.  Is it racism?  Not as such.  It is programming that comes from repeated experience.  Pattern Recognition.

The reverse is true.  Because the 9 deaths by unarmed black people at the hands of cops last year is a pattern amplified by the media, politicians and race baiters, black people distrust and resent the cops.  Personal experience of being harassed by cops reinforces the pattern.  They don't personally know many cops so they distance themselves.  Every encounter with the police is considered life threatening.  WHY?  Pattern Recognition.  

SO what is the answer?  Can programming from pattern recognition be broken?

There are only two ways.
One.  Personal engagement.  I grew up without any engagement with black people.  I probably never laid eyes on one until I was 8 years old.  Before TV.  When I got to college there were many that were classmates.  I decided being curious to seek them out and befriend them.  They were cautious at first but I persisted and became good friends with many.  We even lived together for a while.  It was fascinating and enlightening.  I still stay in touch.

Then moving to the Chicagoland area I made it a point to become personally acquainted with and even friends with many black people.  I enjoy the company and they have loved me back.  It makes my life richer for it.  I am thankful they accept me for who I am.  Not the idea that I have black friends, but that the pattern needs to be broken.

This positive patterning by intention even manifested once in a foreign country when I was traveling on business. It was an international hotel and it was morning and I needed to have some breakfast.  I tried to find a place to sit.  It was crowded and everyone there was. I spotted a few black folks across the room and saw they had an empty chair. I assumed they were americans, probably military, so I went and asked if I could join them. They said yes and after sitting down discovered they were from Nigeria.  We had a lovely conversation.  But the idea that black equaled friendly to me revealed my internal pattern recognition programming was modifying.

YET... the riots on TV, the murders, the violence, the thuggery every day, the whining, the victim-hood is constantly modifying my pattern recognition programming.  It is for most Americans. While no one dare talk about it, it is happening.  The engagement knowing many wonderful black folks is constantly being challenged in my programming by events experienced or televised.

What must happen to change is engagement on a personal level to offset the visuals we see every day.  My experience with those who are most racially biased among black people makes if more difficult to do so.

But the second is harder.  Those who took part in all the violent protests did damage to the national pattern recognition programming.  Even if people say the right words, they will not change the pattern. Washing feet, kneeling and kissing the shoes of black folks is not the answer.  The answer is more difficult.  The pattern being experience must change.  I don't care what you believe about Bill Cosby, but the Huxtibles show did more for changing pattern recognition than most anything.  Yet today we don't have those images. We are treated to angry black folks demanding reparations. Demanding JUSTICE without any clarity on what that might look like.  Black people have to project a new pattern for the rest of society to recognize.  We can only pattern what we see and experience.  It is impossible to decide to reprogram your pattern.  I know this is hard, it really is.  But that is the only way. 

You cannot change your pattern recognition by decision, only by experience.  It's a two way street.  First as a white man I have to want to change, but those black people who want the patterns broken to end racism have to do their part.  As long as the culture is so broken and distant, the pattern cannot be changed.

You cannot simply decide NOT to be racist.  It's all pattern recognition.