The “Naivety” Surrounding Meghan Marrying Into the Royal Family is the Reason Why We Still Haven’t Solved Racism
We need to understand racism — systemic racism — in order to solve it, and our ignorance is showing.
I wrote a piece a few months back that was titled “No, Black People Can’t Be Racist.” It was, much to my relief, pretty well received, although there were some dissenters (which was to be expected). As I stated in that piece, my aim was two-fold; it was not to demonize White people or posit that somehow Black people are morally blameless, but rather to absolve Black people from the burden of fixing a problem that they did not create. Secondly, it was for us to really think about what racism means — racism as an “ism,” as a system of power and hierarchies much like other “isms” like sexism, ableism, and speciesism.
While racial hatred and belief in one’s racial superiority may be part of it, I still believe that it is far too limited to think of racism as just mere racial hatred. Human rights commissions seem to agree with me. That’s why those of us who work in social justice propose equity measures as a redress as opposed to just kumbayah/lets-hold-hands-and-learn-to-love-one-another love fests.
