My View of Systemic Racism and Reparations

 


Systemic Racism and Reparations in America from my perspective...

Mr. Smith, Mr. Jones, and Mr. Woo are born in the same city at the same time. Each is a third-generation American and each is raised by a single mother in the same school system. Each came from ancestors who suffered under systemic racism.

 Mr. Smith is Irish with red hair and light skin. His forefathers were harshly treated when they migrated to America in the early 1900’s. Mr. Jones is Ugandan with dark skin and eyes. His forefathers were among the African tribesmen who captured other Africans and sold them to slave traders. His ancestors were never slaves. Mr. Woo is Asian with tan skin and narrow eyes. His forefathers were ostracized when they came to America, but they endured the treatment and earned the respect. Each looks completely different but their early experiences and their heritage are similar.

In high school, they each get part-time jobs. Mr. Smith saves for college, Mr. Jones buys beer to party, and Mr. Woo opens his own small business. They each graduate high school and apply for college grants. Mr. Smith is rejected, because even though his grades are good, he is not a minority. Mr. Jones is given a full ride even though he barely passed because his college needs to recruit more minorities. Mr. Woo skips college because his business is doing well enough to open another store.

Mr. Smith works hard in college but also works a part-time job to pay expenses. His grades suffer, but he keeps going. Mr. Jones parties through college, never worrying about bills, and because he plays football, he keeps his scholarship. Mr. Woo takes night courses after working 18-hour days to learn better business practices.

Mr. Smith graduates with a significant student loan which he intends to pay as soon as he finishes med school. Mr. Jones drops most of his courses, and his girlfriend is pregnant but he’s not worried. She’s an unemployed single minority, so her bills are covered. Mr. Woo also has debt, but his businesses are doing well and he has set up a loan repayment plan.

A pickup truck full of red necks targets Mr. Jones who is innocently walking down the street. They shout racist names and pretend to shoot him before roaring away in a cloud of dust. Someone captures this on a smartphone and uploads it to social media. All Mr. Jones’ friends are outraged and stage a riot in his honor. The riot blocks traffic, keeping Mr. Smith from getting to the hospital on time for an important interview. He is severely reprimanded and hears the black head nurse mutter something about “dumb Irishmen.”

A few months later, Mr. Smith is turned down again for medical school because he is not a minority. He also learns that his government will tax him for reparations to pay Mr. Jones for systemic racism. Unemployed Mr. Jones joins marches and riots, blaming systemic racism for getting him kicked out of college and forcing him to go on welfare. He feels justified when he bashes Mr. Woo’s store window and takes a flat-screen TV because, after all, he is a victim of systemic racism.

He believes what he is told, that marches, riots, and looting will convince redneck racists and pockets of skinheads to stop their racist thinking. By committing crimes, he will convince racist Americans that black people are not criminals. This thinking is championed by the media and he is lauded as a hero.

Mr. Smith is informed that he is racist because he does not agree that he has been part of any systemic racism. He suggests that the Irish should also be paid reparations because of the way they were treated when they arrived in America. Mr. Woo softly suggests something similar about his grandparents, but he too is told he is racist. So he quietly scrubs “Go Home, Chink” from his storefront. He is also informed that he will be taxed to pay Mr. Jones for systemic racism. 

Mr. Smith has never previously held any ill-will toward Mr. Jones, but now he does. Mr. Woo just wants to live the American dream his grandfather suffered for him to have. He’s had a great relationship with all his customers, no matter what color they were, but now he feels anxious when Mr. Jones enters his store. The window hasn’t been repaired yet and he can’t afford to replace it twice. He’s seen Mr. Jones on the internet, pillaging in his neighborhood, but he knows if he says anything, he will be targeted again. So he ducks his head and studies the new tax bill he must pay to Mr. Jones for systemic racism. 

“This is how we end racism!” screams the purple-haired woman on TV. In response, the crowd goes wild and tips over a police car with two black officers inside. “Black lives matter!” she cries through a bull-horn. Mr. Woo nods as he watches on his TV with a cracked screen, damaged the night of the first riots. Black lives do matter, he thinks. But where is this systemic racism against only black people? What laws are they screaming about that must change? Hasn’t that already happened? What systems do they intend to change by all this rioting? Can marches and riots change a human heart committed to being racist?

Mr. Smith is now Dr. Smith. He gently tends to the wounds of a black woman injured when the protesters bashed in her front door. She was suspected of disagreeing with the mobs. Dr. Smith knows she will walk from the ER having paid nothing for her excellent care. The hospital won’t be paid much for this either, because the woman is a minority with free healthcare. She’s brought her fatherless children in numerous times for minor complaints because it costs her nothing, whereas, Dr. Smith’s dad is still trying to pay off his one trip to the ER for a ruptured appendix. 

Dr. Smith’s attending physician is an older black man who has been the target of senseless racism. But he must remain silent about the systemic part, knowing if he raised his objections, he would be targeted by his own people. They would punish him for speaking his mind and disagreeing with the mobs. 

Is it wise to accept without question the notion of “systemic racism?” Is pitting one race against another—calling one evil and one good—the way to promote peace? 

Every people group experiences some form of injustice. Simply being female puts one-half of the population at greater risk than the other half in dangerous neighborhoods. But calling all males evil is not the way to solve the problem because most of them are NOT part of the problem. Marching down the highway in protest will not change the mind of a rapist. Evil is in the heart, not in our system.

 American systems have bent over backward to elevate minorities. Reverse racism is implicit in our systems but it is re-labeled equality and praised as just and fair. Mr. Smith and Mr. Woo have experienced it all their lives, but they dare not speak their minds because doing so labels them as racists. And THIS is how America defines racial equality.