By Ed Brodow
An isolated incidence of police brutality in Minneapolis gave the left an excuse to scream about systemic racism. The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police was a tragedy, but it cannot prove the existence of institutionalized racist activity.
The Floyd incident raises two critical questions: (1) Is America plagued with systemic racism that justifies the dismantling of our social and political institutions? (2) Do racist police and justice systems deliberately discriminate against black Americans?
Systemic racism no longer exists in the United States. Individual instances of racism are occurring and always will occur — against both blacks and whites — but to argue that racism is institutionalized ignores the changes that have occurred in the last 60 years. “America is now the least racist white-majority society in the world,” said black Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson.
“The false charge of systemic racism,” said author David Horowitz, “is a convenient cover for the Left’s inability to identify actual racists directly responsible for inequalities in American life. It is unable to do so because America’s culture is so egalitarian and anti-racist that the numbers of actual racists are so few, and their impact so inconsequential, that they don’t amount to a national problem.”
Systemic racism is a myth invented by the left to create division and political chaos. When people say America is plagued by systemic racism, says black author Shelby Steele, they are simply expanding the territory of entitlement. Black Americans are accorded special privileges in every nook and cranny of our society. We elected a black president — twice. “Blacks have never been less oppressed than they are today,” says Steele. “If you are black and want to be a poet, or a doctor, or a corporate executive, or a movie star, there will surely be barriers to overcome, but white racism will be among the least of them. You will be far more likely to receive racial preferences than to suffer racial discrimination.”