The Self-Evident Truth: America is Racist

Racism is America’s original sin and it has never gone away.

America is struggling to breathe from the weight of racism. Racial injustice rests firm and permanent in the crook of her neck.

The Great Experiment that is the United States is dying. America has failed to reconcile the sins of its Founding Fathers. It continues to perpetuate crimes of hate against people of color.

Slavery is America’s original sin. From it came a caste system of white superiority, and depicted every man, woman, and child of color as inferior. From the bowels of slavery came unequal educational opportunities. No African American had the same wage as a white man. White America did everything it could to keep systemic racism in place and keep the black man behind him.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness…But Only if You’re White

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — Declaration of Independence, 1776

But these truths are not self-evident. They are not factual. White America had these inalienable rights while the American Experiment denied African Americans the promise of equality. The United States is not and has never been a meritocracy. A white man’s success is never achieved through his efforts and abilities alone. The color of his skin gave him benefits the day he was born.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. — The Constitution of the United States of America, 1787

A more perfect Union was not formed. True justice was not established. The Blessings of Liberty was not bestowed upon all its people. If you are African American your freedom did not come until the 13th Amendment passed in 1865. And for the next 150 years, there was lynching, cross burnings, and segregation. Mass incarceration created a new caste system, a new form of slavery.

Systemic racism devalues men and women of color. It keeps them from participating in the full promise and power of the United States.

The Constitution was written to establish a government advocating justice and domestic tranquility. George Floyd and millions of people of color were never the recipient of that type of justice and safety.

Hundreds of thousands are protesting the killing of George Floyd. Once again, another white man with a badge felt secure in his right to choke another human being to death.

A new generation of Americans cannot see another African American die at the hands of the police. They have had enough. Today and tomorrow they raise their voices demanding justice. They use their bodies as shields. They jump in front of batons and rubber bullets of America’s militarized police.

Police brutality is a problem, but if we’re honest, the killing of Mr. Floyd is a symptom of a much larger problem.

America is a racist country.

People of color are not held with the same regard as White America.

More black men will die and riots will burn through our cities until we admit that sin and do everything we can to change it.

The United States will not face the ugliness of its past. It is a conversation it refuses to have. Talking racial inequity may destroy the American mythos that it is the land of the free, home of the Brave, and champion to the downtrodden. You can’t be any of that if your police are choking black men to death and tear gassing peaceful protesters.

Jim Wallis wrote racism is America’s original sin. Slavery began over 400 years ago in 1619 when the privateer The White Lion brought 20 African slaves to Jamestown. It took another 244 years to end the practice and that almost destroyed the country.

The American myth claims ingenuity, hard work, and sacrifice made it great. That is only part of the story. America’s promise and wealth was built on the backs of an enslaved people. Thomas Craemer, associate professor at the University of Connecticut, estimates the value of slave labor in the United States in 2009 dollars is between $5.9 trillion to $14.2 trillion (Craemmer, 2015). A combination of natural resources and 200 years of free labor grew America into a world power.

After Slavery, came Jim Crow. It forced African Americans into a labor market based on low wages with little or no opportunity for growth (Hansan, J.E., 2011). These laws governed almost every aspect of American life. It mandated the segregation of blacks from whites. Each had their own schools, hospitals, restrooms, prisons, transportation, drinking fountains, and restaurants. Access to better quality education kept African Americans from getting better jobs. Cheap labor benefited the United States and White America took advantage. America was separate and definitely not equal.

Jim Crow sanctioned segregation for over 150 years. It became another kind of slavery, pushing Black America into a perpetual state of second-class citizenship.

Segregation came to an end with Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Fair Housing Act of 1968. White America patted themselves on the back. They had won the war against racism. African Americans were now equal to White America.

But that was a lie we told to make ourselves feel better. We did not end Jim Crow or racial injustice. White America improved upon its previous model of racism and made it better.

In the 1970s, a new kind of Jim Crow infected America. The jail and prison population from 1980 to 2015 grew from 500,000 to 2.2 million. At the federal and state levels, tough on crime policies led to massive racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Justice splintered into two roads. One for the wealthy and white, and another for the poor and people of color.

America tells a fairy tale that the United States judiciary system is fair. If you commit a crime, you deserve to go to jail. Justice was blind. The truth was altogether different. Justice was blind unless you were poor and a minority.

In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander wrote a racial caste system exists in the United States (Alexander, 2010). Millions of African Americans are incarcerated. Their lives downgraded into a permanent state of second-class citizenship. Both in and out of prison, they are denied basic human rights. Each one prevented from enjoying the freedoms and rights fought for by the Civil Rights Movement. Today, there are more African American men in a correctional facility, prison or jail, probation, or parole than there were slaves in 1850.

African Americans make up 13.4% of the U.S. population (United States Census, 2019) yet they constitute 2.3 million or 34% of the 6.8 million people that make up the American correctional system (NAACP, n.d.). They are incarcerated at a rate 1408 per 100,000 compared to whites at a rate of 275 per 100,000. African Americans and Hispanics make up 56% of the prison population, but are 32% of the U.S. population.

The New Jim Crow does not end with an African American in prison. It extends its reach into all aspects of society.

A white male with a criminal record has a better chance of getting an interview than a black male with no criminal record.

Wealth in America is segregated according to race as well. The distribution of wealth is very separate and definitely not equal. The median wealth of white households is 10 times that of black households. It is 8 times that of Hispanic households (Pew Research, 2017).

There is a 30.1 percent difference between black and white homeownership. African American homeownership was higher pre-1968 when it was legal to discriminate and give preferential treatment to white homebuyers (Young, 2019).

Racial injustice bleeds into healthcare as well.

People of color face disparities in quality of healthcare . A 2015 study showed doctors exhibited an implicit bias/attitude towards racial/ethnic groups.

Around 9.7% of African Americans are uninsured, while only 5.4% of White Americans are uninsured.

The life expectancy of a black man is three years less than a white man.

America was never designed to be equal. It was created to build a sanctuary for White Men, and that sanctuary was built on the backs of the Black and Brown America.

Four Policemen Believed They Could Get Away With Choking Another Human Being

Being white and a policeman has its privileges. A gang of police can be filmed choking a black man for illegally selling cigarettes.

Since the video of George Floyd’s death went viral, America asked how a police officer believed he had the right to kneel into a man’s neck and choke him to death. Especially when the police officers knew they were being recorded.

To paraphrase the Declaration of Independence — the answer is self-evident. The police believed they would get away with it.

The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth. It is Home to the Brave and Free.

So how can the police feel they have the right to shoot 18-year old Michael Brown 6 times? Choke and kill Eric Garner? Or, kill 12-year old Tamir Rice while playing in the snow with his sister? What gives them the right to barge into Breonna Taylor’s home in the middle of the night and shoot her 8 times?

They get away with killing because all they have to say is that they felt their lives were in danger. Even when the suspect is already handcuffed or he is 12-years old.

For centuries, Black and Brown America have lived with the most uncomfortable truth of all. They know America is racist, or rather, White America is racist.

Systemic racism is sown tight and strong into the fabric of American culture. It did not end with slavery. Racism did not stop because a few laws gave Black America rights that was already theirs to begin with.

Racism did not go away when the Supreme Court invalidated the key part of the Voting Rights Act. Five conservative justices said minorities no longer face discrimination at the voting booth.

Slavery was replaced by Jim Crow and segregation. Both were replaced by mass incarceration and continued discrimination in healthcare, job advancement, and housing.

In a May 31, 2020, opinion piece, Chicago Tribune columnist Dahleen Glanton wrote,

White people, you are the problem.

Regardless of how much you say you detest racism, you are the sole reason it has flourished for centuries. And you are the only ones who can stop it.

I do not think of myself as a racist. There is a certain truth to what Ms. Glanton wrote. I have been, along with millions of other White Americans, the only reason racism thrived. We are the only reason racism became an American way of life.

What Happens Now?

Barack Obama wrote in an essay on June 1, 2020,

‘If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves (Obama, 2020).’

If we want America to operate on a higher ethical code, then let us begin with the demilitarization of the police.

Police departments train their officers to fight, shoot, and restrain. Our police need to be in partnerships with the community, and stop acting like soldiers.

Police must be guardians of the communities they swore to protect. They need to stop serving the Thin Blue Line.

The frontline against racial injustice must be with our police departments. With equal fervor, they need to be trained to help people in a mental health crisis.

Until racial bias is no longer in the patrol cars, courts, and prisons, racial injustice will never end.

Where the Real Change Must Start — With You and Me

Racial injustice will not end. Not until, America accepts it subscribed and benefited from an ideology of white superiority. Equality for the few means no one is equal.

Most white Americans do not believe racism or hate exists in their hearts. They are not racists, each one says. They think racism lives in the South and in police departments not their own.

Their crazy Uncle Joe is the racist. The crap he says about Obama. Of course, he’s a racist. Trump and his followers are the racists. Not me, they say.

Older, white Americans do not see racism unless a cross is burning in their neighbor’s lawn. Or, a band of white hooded men parade through their hometown yelling the N word.

Thousands protest the killing of George Floyd and most of them are not African American. And their hearts, the men who killed George Floyd are the racists. Not me, they say. I’m protesting.

But what were they doing the day before Mr. Floyd was killed? Were they protesting in March when Manuel Ellis cried I can’t breathe? Where was the outrage then?

Years of ignorance enabled a doctrine of white supremacy to run unchecked in America. That ignorance is the hardest truth of all.

White America inflicted violence on Black and Brown people since the first slave came to Jamestown in 1619.

Racism Will Not End

Until America accepts and confesses the sins of its past and present.

We protested and rioted when four police officers were acquitted of beating Rodney King. And still nothing happened.

Nothing changed when Malice Green Wayne was beat to death by two officers in Detroit in 1992.

Black Lives Matter but still Michael Brown was shot 8 times.

Racism did not go away in 1997 when Abner Louima, a 33-year-old Haitian immigrant, was arrested and sodomized with a plunger.

Racism did not go away in 2006 when Sean Bell was shot and killed by NYPD officers the day before his wedding.

America protested and rioted in Baltimore when Freddie Gray was killed in a police van. And we still had 17-year old Antwon Rose II shot and killed by a police officer in east Pittsburgh.

Racial injustice did not go away because America was not angry enough.

It is not enough to protest and chant Black Lives Matter. We cannot march for a few weeks until another tragedy, celebrity wedding, or Presidential Tweet grabs our attention.

We have to stay angry and hold our leaders accountable. And for those who will not meet our vision, who will not address our wrongs, then we stay angry and vote their asses out of office.

The bold vision written in the Declaration of Independence…

Begins when America acknowledges injustice to one person, regardless of color, is injustice to everyone.

Until then, there will be more George Floyds dying and more riots tearing down our cities.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham jail, April 16, 1963