Definitely agree with this. Racism requires the power of a systemic response to really be racism. Prejudice certainly is a part of racism, a necessary part, I think, but it’s not the only part.

If you judge other people based on their race without even meeting them, that’s prejudice. If you judge people based on their race without meeting them, and can use the law to keep them out of your store, or your school. . . That’s racism. And, yes, we white people are guilty of that all the time.

If we can’t understand and acknowledge that, we’re never going to be able to successfully weed it out of our array of acceptable social responses. It’s not acceptable. Because the system is rigged to support whites, it’s going to be necessary that we pale people affirmatively do something to dismantle the unfair system we’ve created. We can’t do it alone, but we have a moral imperative to work together with those affected by the systemic racism to change the system.