“Systemic,” according to Webster’s dictionary means “of, pertaining to or affecting the whole body.” Our whole body, our country, has been affected by this generational bias. Author Scott Woods: “The problem is that white people see racism as conscious hate, when racism is bigger than that. Racism is a complex system of social and political levers and pulleys set up generations ago to continue working on the behalf of whites at other people’s expense, whether whites know/like it or not.”
This is a good explanation of what racism is and how it got rooted in our country. In 1704, in South Carolina, slave patrols were set up to hunt down, capture and return a runaway slave to the white owner. These patrols were white men who opposed Blacks having freedom. Google “original purpose of colonial police”: “These slave patrols are generally considered to be the first ‘modern’ police organizations in this country.”
The insidious sin of racism has been added to generation upon generation. Think the Civil War as a lever. The KKK, a pulley. The Jim Crow laws, a pulley. Segregation, a lever. “Separate but equal,” a lever. White supremacists, lever. Proud Boys, pulley. Since most of us may not overtly be involved in these actions, we may assume their effects/influences are gone. However, they are not. We won’t find a date we can point to where we collectively woke up and found all the racism simply disappeared.
We need to come to grips with our past and make a determined effort to stop this cancer.
Jerrye A. Ralston
Lynnwood
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
