Rashid A Mughal
RACE relations in US are like a ticking bomb. If
you see the events from Rodney King thrashing in
LA (1992) to George Floyd, 2020, you will see that racism in America is pervasive and omnipresent. The “system” is racist and it is designed to thwart blacks for the purpose of white supremacy. Examples include criminal justice system, voter suppression, redlining of mortgages by banks, profiling by police, higher rates of expulsion in public schools, lower per-pupil funding in schools with high percentages of black students, and general discrimination in hiring, promotion and in all phases of life.
Black people fear for their lives and believe there are whites who would kill them just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. General perception among majority of black population is that white police “murder” black people almost every day. For the sake of record, all black leaders have been assassinated. Some American policies are tragically flawed and culpable for a number of evils. The system is a responsible for slavery and Jim Crow Laws. The black people don’t believe they have a homeland in the way that the Jews can look to Israel. They don’t seem to identify themselves as Americans .As a people with an overwhelmingly deprecating view of America, they are without a home of their own.
But this is not the Jim Crow America of 1950. Enormous progress on race issues has been made. One must resist the temptation to be a victim, to be defeatist and cynical. America is a big hearted, loving nation of powerful moral ideals unique in the world. For black people, the full realization of those ideals is coming slowly. First in the genius of founding documents, then the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. African Americans would take a seat at the table of opportunity in America, gradually and with the passage of time. Not all blacks believe that “all whites are racist.” But what is commonly heard is that all white people have certain privileges due to white supremacy, whether they want it or not. Peggy McIntosh, an author, has outlined a very thoughtful list of some of those privileges in her famous article, “White Privilege: Unpacking Invisible Knapsack”.
There are more subtle/debatable instances of this, of course, but there are also really obvious ones. If you read any of Dylan Roof’s explanation (the white supremacist and mass murderer who killed a black family in a church on 17 June 2015) for shooting black churchgoers in Charleston, you might see that there are indeed people who are clear about their murderous hatred of black people. This is not ancient history. Traffic stops are fearful events for black Americans — that seems to be a fairly self-evident claim, given the statistics for the last several years. Perhaps knowing the story of Philando Castile, who was pulled over 46 times before being fatally shot by a police officer, would help explain why. Republican Senator Tim Scott also talked thoughtfully about his experience being pulled over and the fear that those stops inspired.
When confronted with the long list of ways that life in the United States and around the world is limited for black people because they are black, one might rightly feel somewhat dismayed. Black people experience higher rates of poverty, gun violence, maternal mortality, and incarceration than any other group in this country. They also have less access to jobs, education and opportunities and to come back to the idea that blacks cannot stand by idly, these circumstances collectively might naturally result in a feeling of hopelessness. Trying to gaslight black people (or people from any marginalized group) into thinking that they are at fault for their own inequality is a belief that many do not believe can be justified. Racism is an organizing principle of American life. It was written into Constitution by founding fathers and it has been codified into law. That has profound, enduring ramifications. Racism isn’t just going to disappear. It is baked into the fabric of nation. If people want to fight against it, the most basic and fundamental step is to acknowledge it. Blacks are particularly gloomy about the country’s racial progress. More than eight-in-ten black adults say the legacy of slavery affects position of black people in America today, including 59% who say it affects it a great deal. About eight-in-ten blacks (78%) say country hasn’t gone far enough when it comes to giving black people equal rights with whites and half say it’s unlikely that country will eventually achieve racial equality.
Eight-in-ten white Democrats – vs. 40% of white Republicans – say the legacy of slavery continues to have an impact on black people’s position in American society today. And when it comes to views about racial discrimination, 78% of white Democrats say the bigger problem is people not seeing it where it really does exist, while a similar share of white Republicans say people seeing racial discrimination where it really does not exist is the bigger problem. Blacks are more likely than other groups to say their race has had a negative impact on their ability to get ahead; whites are the most likely to say their race helped them.
About half of black adults (52%) say being black has hurt their ability to get ahead at least a little, with 18% saying it has hurt a lot. About a quarter of Hispanics and Asians (24% each) and just 5% of whites say their race or ethnicity has had a negative impact. In turn, whites are more likely than other groups to say their racial background has helped them at least a little. When it comes to views of Obama’s handling of race relations, 55% of Democrats say he improved race relations during his presidency; just 8% say he made things worse. In contrast, 51% of Republicans say Obama made race relations worse, while 14% say he made progress toward improving it. As is the case with views of Trump’s handling of race relations, white and black Democrats offer somewhat similar assessments of how Obama handled this issue when he was President.
— The writer is former DG (Emigration) and consultant ILO, IOM.
