Yes, Jeff Wall, Systemic Racism Exists in America — Part I: Definitions

“How do you define systemic racism? Please be as specific as possible.”

Systemic — “relating to a system, especially as opposed to a particular part.”

Racism — “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.”

Where I think you and many others stumble in grasping the concept of “systematic racism” is your perceived need for there to be an conscious overt act of discrimination (which it often is) and the discrimination of disparate (negative) impact resulting from the ways the different elements of our society as a system interact to advantage given groups and disadvantage other groups by the color of their skin. Coincidentally (shocker) the group that historically has been and continues to be overwhelmingly advantaged (as a group, individual mileage may vary) are white people. Also, most white Americans have very little real interaction with people of color and there seems to be a real empathy gap in appreciating the challenges other groups go through since by and large they don’t experience the same things.

Some accessible references for background reading: to the question of how America historically worked to systemically advantage white people and to disadvantage Blacks, there is no better starting point than Ta-Nehisi Coates’ seminal essay The Case for…