The New Racism
Until recently, most Americans believed that we were moving beyond racism. We hoped that the dream of Martin Luther King Jr., would be fulfilled, his children would grow up in a nation where they would “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” But that may not be possible. A new racism is spreading across America.
In the book Stamped (for Kids) the authors state, “White people who deny that racism still exists point to the success of a small handful of Black people, such as Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, and Barack Obama, as proof. It’s like treating a few successful Black individuals as characters in a fictional story, and the setting is a country where race doesn’t matter.”
Stamped (for Kids) is a middle-grade version of Stamped by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds. The problem with the quote above is few Americans believe that racism doesn’t exist—it does. But, in a country founded with slavery, we have grown to the point where 230 years later, the majority voted for a black president—and then did so again four years later. Oprah is a billionaire, and Jordan plays the sport he loves and earns millions doing so. Those are not small exceptions. There are eight black billionaires in the United States, and black millionaires number 1.5 million. The Brookings Institution estimates that most black households are middle class. How can any of that be a bad thing? How could it happen in a country with systemic racism?
Americans have never thought of their country as perfect but, we have strived for more than two hundred years to build a more perfect union. However, racism remains and not always where you would expect to find it. On the website of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, we are told that “This white-dominant culture also operates as a social mechanism that grants advantages to white people, since they can navigate society both by feeling normal and being viewed as normal.” Later it states, “Whiteness (and its accepted normality) also exist as everyday microaggressions toward people of color.” Think about what those two statements teach. People of color can’t feel normal in a white majority society and the very existence of white people is aggression against people of color. This is your federal tax dollars at work—spreading race hate.
Note the Smithsonian graphic on the right. In his article, Where Progressives and the Alt-Right Meet, Liberal author and editor, Robert Tracinski says the graphic “tells us that the distinctive characteristics of “whiteness” and “white culture” include:
· Hard work
Click to enlarge
· “Delayed gratification”
· Planning for the future
· The “nuclear family”
· Rational thinking
· Promptness
· Politeness
· “Decision-making”
· Personal responsibility
· Speaking standard English
I find nothing wrong with those attributes. However, Tracinski takes it one step farther and points out that “by implication, it’s telling us that black people are not characterized by any of these traits.” In his article, he calls the graphic (which has since been taken down) “one of the most racist documents I’ve ever seen, as part of a web page about ‘whiteness.’” I encourage people to read his entire article here.
For more on this subject read, our review of Stamped (for kids) and CRT and Education. Also, let us know what you think about the new racism in the comment section below.
