SENSELESS POLITICAL RHETORIC
‘America is Not a Racist Country’
What does the statement even mean?
“Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, [says] that ‘America is not a racist country.’”
Nikki Haley has reiterated the point. “A self-loathing has swept our country.” She said, “Every day we’re told America is flawed, rotten, and full of hate. Joe and Kamala even say America is racist. [This is a lie.] Nothing could be further from the truth.”
All of us white folk can rest easy now since a Black man and a second-generation Indian woman have decreed that this is not a racist country. A Black Republican senator and a former governor, no less. Certainly, they would know racism if they saw it.
Polite applause, not from the peanut gallery.
So just what is a racist country? Certainly Germany under the Nazis. South Africa during apartheid. The United States prior to the civil war and during Jim Crow. All countries with racism enabled by legislation.
But is “legislated racism” the only measure of a racist country? Certainly not. There are many ways to discriminate without a legal basis.
Let us not get into the quagmire of discussing what constitutes a racist country. Let’s not spend our time and effort affixing the blame. Let’s direct our efforts toward fixing the problem.
At the very least, America has a racist past. To think that the tendrils of racism have somehow vanished is foolish. Change takes time. Change takes effort. Admitting the mistakes of one’s past and present is not self-loathing. It’s progress.
The first step in recovery from our addiction to racism is to admit we have a problem. And from current rhetoric, we can see that the first step is clearly the hardest.
We Americans continue to have issues that are at least the result of racism, if not actively enabled by current racism.
While Black Americans constitute 13.6% of our population, they are 38% of the occupants of our prisons.
The poverty rate for Black Americans is more than double that of white Americans. For Indigenous People, it is triple that of white Americans.
The list goes on.
But don’t say “America is not a racist country”
The statement is meaningless. It serves only to divert us from addressing the issues that are perpetuated by refusing to acknowledge them. It is faux-patriotism at its worst.
But saying “America is a racist country,” is no better because there is no focus. No point which can be addressed with corrective action. And it denigrates those who work to improve our imperfect nation.
It’s best not to ignore our problems or deliver hateful screeds at those we believe are to blame. Let us, instead, begin the road to recovery and admit we have a problem.
The playing field is not level and never has been
This observation is not an indictment. It is an assessment of the situation. It is not a call to right all wrongs of the past. It is a call to enable those in the here-and-now to escape the bonds that have held back their forefathers. A call to allow all who are created equal to work toward forming a more perfect union.
And that, my fellow Americans, is true patriotism.
Thanks to Katharine Valentino for enhancing readability.
