Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Socialist’s Journal: Solving Institutional Racism

Trevor Brookins
Trevor Brookins

*Last week I identified two methods of dealing with the racism that people of color face today. My intention was not only to evaluate the solutions that are being pursued currently in terms of police brutality but also to identify the issue behind police brutality as not necessarily a problem of inherently racist officers.

Of course it is possible that individuals who have grown up developing biases towards black people will become members of law enforcement. But the larger problem is that people who presumably did not grow up in this manner are also engaging in behaviors that endanger people of color. These behaviors are born of the training they receive and that is where the idea of institutional racism becomes relevant.

A lack of understanding of this term is a sticking point in American society. Many well-meaning people, particularly older people, react negatively to the idea that racism is a problem in the United States today. Folks who grew up with friends and/or family who would not eat with a Mexican-American have a hard time perceiving that racism exists outside of those bigoted individuals. Institutional racism is the idea that an organization can or bureaucracy can be racist. If “We Hate Jews” is a group founded on the ideas that Jewish people are evil and need to be removed from American society, it would be hard to believe that philosophy would change depending on the makeup of its members. One reason is that such a group would tend to attract those who already lean in that ideological direction. A second reason would be that individuals who join the group would have negative ideas about Jewish people constantly reinforced.

This does not mean institutional racism cannot be undone – The Democratic and Republican Parties have exchanged positions in terms of liberalism and conservatism on racial issues. But it did take an international Depression and approximately two decades for that reversal.

The ideas about people of color held by law enforcement agencies and their training methods are rooted in racism. As evidence I cite in my local area the Amadou Diallo incident in which multiple officers repeatedly shot an unarmed African immigrant without cause but were exonerated because their training led them to that action. As evidence I cite on the national landscape the ethnic profiling that occurs in airports at the direction of the Department of Homeland Security.

Race makes people in the United States think of people in a certain way depending on the context. Seeing an Asian person in a math class invokes a certain stereotype that while positive is very much prejudicial in the same way that seeing a black person wearing a hooded sweatshirt in the evening creates a negative image.

There are two building blocks to my solution to institutional racism. First, American culture is the most powerful force in the world. It gets exported and is consumed around the globe to the extent that when people immigrate here they are already familiar with certain customs. Second, American culture values people of color; everyone in the United States (and therefore the world) knows who Beyonce is and probably can sing along with at least one of her songs. The problem is that American culture portrays people of color in primarily certain ways. This true of works of fiction in which there are black characters who are prosperous but on the other hand if a criminal character is introduced it is more likely to be a black character. As much as I love hip hop as an art form, it is egregiously guilty in this regard. Similarly in non-fictional accounts of current events Black and Latino criminals are given lots more press than white offenders, even though there are more white criminals than there are black.

The answer then is to reverse this trend of how white and non-whites are shown in a negative context. A more balanced approach would be beneficial. But even more important is the credit that should be given to African-American culture makers. Too often American culture swallows up artists and claims them as American and de-emphasizing their origin – making it big meant appealing to a wide audience. But appealing to a wide audience does not have to mean ignoring their origin. We should be able to recognize the great contributions that people of color make to American society while still emphasizing their ethnicity and their inclusion; this was Justice Sotomayor’s argument during her confirmation about why being Latina makes her qualified to sit on the Supreme Court.

Black culture (and other ethnic sub-cultures) must be accepted as distinct aspects of American culture in a positive way beyond sports and entertainment. When American culture starts to reflect this understanding of people of color it will humanize us. My contention is that institutions (like law enforcement) that are built on images of black people as savages will shift their perspectives and methods.

Certainly this is not a change that could happen overnight – it took generations for basketball and football to replace baseball and boxing as the nation’s favorite sports. And really we should hope it takes time because solutions that take time are usually more significant and long lasting.

Trevor Brookins is a free lance writer in Rockland County, New York. He is currently working on a book about American culture during the Cold War.  His writing has appeared in The Journal News. You can reach him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @historictrev.

 

 

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