Race and the “ism” That Won’t Go Away.

It’s the “ism” that sullies any discussion of race in America.

Race, after all, is simply a social construct that describes various ethnic groupings. The “ism” defines how we react to the other, those who fall into one of those not-like-us ethnicities. Race or religion-based isms illustrate how various ethnicities negatively react to everyone outside of their particular ethnicity. The isms are the boulders societies seem condemned to eternally push up uphill just as Sisyphus was condemned to do after incurring the wrath of Zeus.

Racism has played a sad and often tragic role that has tormented the life of millions throughout history. Addressing the impact of racism on society, any society, is appropriate and essential if humanity is to evolve toward a more just paradigm for the cultures that inhabit the planet, let alone our country.

Many people seem to believe that the history we teach should simply acknowledge that we once had slavery in America, that it was abolished in 1865 when the Union defeated the Confederacy. And, yes, there was lingering racism and Jim Crow laws, but that ended when Congress passed, and President Lyndon Johnson signed, the Civil Rights Act of 1964. So much for racism in America.

But that would be a national lesson plan that educated no one. That would simply be an exercise in classroom anesthesia. On the other hand, imparting a sense of guilt to this generation of young Americans for the agonies visited upon generations of African Americans by prior generations of Americans is both wrongheaded and certain to further confound the quest for harmony in America.

Let’s recognize that our history has, at times (including the present), constituted a painful journey for many Americans. But let’s also acknowledge that we Americans, every one of us, have an obligation to acknowledge, if not embrace, our most sacred founding principle that, “We (Americans) hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Those words electrified the world. They constituted a radically new paradigm and a sacred commitment to one another as true today, for 21^st century Americans, as for any generation of Americans in our history. If we, as Americans, no longer embrace these inalienable rights and that commitment to justice for all, then that remarkable 245-year old declaration of our purpose and our independence is but a relic—nice, but not very relevant.  

While our declaration that all men are created equal may be accurate at the miracle of conception, any notion of real equality thereafter is, of course, nonsense here in America and everywhere else as well. The ideal we strive for is that everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve life’s blessings consistent with their talent and determination to succeed to the full extent of their capability.

Until the 1964 Civil rights Act was passed and signed into law, we could not even seriously pretend that liberty was equally and commonly enjoyed in our country. Quite the contrary, it was in varying degrees systematically denied or infringed concerning America’s black citizens in much of the country, both in the south and, to varying degrees, in the north as well. Indeed, the history of unequal application of the law in sentencing whites and blacks for similar infractions of the law is an agonizingly well-documented “ism”.

A 2015 study of men facing first-time felony charges found that darker-skinned black men received sentences that were, on average, 400 days longer than their white counterparts, while medium-skinned black men received sentences about 200 days longer than their white counterparts. On average, black men received a sentence 270 days longer than white men.

I hasten to add that serious efforts are underway at all levels of the criminal justice system to address these inequities, these remaining isms. The system understands that this systemic racism exists, and, belatedly, serious efforts are being made to address the problem. Nonetheless, systemic racism lingers on throughout the economic life of the country.

I have discussed, in these columns, studies that demonstrate the quantifiable extent to which applicants for advertised corporate job openings are routinely culled, resulting in obviously white candidates being called for interviews five or six times more frequently than identically qualified candidates who are obviously black. The routine advantage or disadvantage many job applicants experience simply because of their race has immense, lifelong implications for their pursuit of economic mobility and security and, therefore, their fundamental, inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness.

So, let’s face it; the pursuit of happiness, which is so integral and foundational to the American experience, is seriously compromised when that pursuit is institutionally made more difficult for some.

That reality remains the “ism” that just won’t go away unless we collectively strive to banish it.

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