Thoughts on Systemic Racism and What Can End It

George Floyd's torturous killing at the hands of ordinary beat cops has rightfully horrified all but the most callous members of the Caucasian social elite who still control far too many of our major institutions and corporations. The phrase 'systemic racism' frequently passes the lips of activists who have dedicated their lives to ending police brutality and extrajudicial killings.

But what is 'systemic racism'? It's a dense phrase begging for a clear explanation. I've yet to read one myself that didn't require prior training.

So....at the risk of not being the most qualified social scientist to do this, I'm going to attempt to define it in terms any one of my Caucasian peers can understand.

RACISM IS SOCIAL

First, I need to clear away some cobwebs of misunderstanding I've encountered in conversations before with white peers. Pointing to a systemic form of racism is NOT a blanket indictment of ALL individuals in an organization as violent, racist bigots who need to be caged. That's the defensive reaction of folks who do not understand how racism functions as a cultural value system that exists between and among individuals. Racism is not located in an individual's brain like a personality quirk or located on their body like a skin tag.

It's a social phenomenon. Until white people accept this, there is no hope of a solution.

Wait! I've never said or done anything like those killer cops, many of my racial peers say to themselves. Great. But what about the indifferent white cops who stood around and said nothing? What explains their indifference? And our own sofa-bound indifference at times.

Now, we're getting closer to the phenomenon of systemic racism.

RACISM IS AN EXTREME FORM OF PERCEIVED STRANGER DANGER

As a social scientist and explorer of world cultures, I'm sad to relay to some of you the fact that racism is found in most complex societies on Earth. The biological roots of racism are not complex. The fight/flight system in the human brain fuels the desire for our brains to make snap generalizations about other humans who 'look' substantially different than those in our immediate family/clan. It happens unconsciously and very quickly. Visual cues of skin tone, specifically, lead to sloppy generalizations and judgments, because we're unfortunately hard-wired to jump to these kinds of racial conclusions.

Racism, at its core, is simply an extreme, out-of-control form of 'stranger danger' to our primitive brains. Your amygdala doesn't feel guilty. Trust me.

But we are not slaves to this primitive response. Across history and the world today, ordinary folks have been able to look past this neurological impulse, pause and overlook it.

But it's not that easy in real life. So, what does this have to do with systemic racism?

RACISM IS SUSTAINED THROUGH STORYTELLING

Hang on. If racism is fed by a crude neurological reaction to visual differences, it is given real potency through ordinary storytelling. This involves dark stories in which we dress up 'groups' defined by visual patterns in robes of evil woven by our imaginations and fears. These fears are stoked by anecdotes we use to reinforce our dark narratives.

In America, the local media in most cities is disproportionately prone to documenting daily anecdotes of crime in minority neighborhoods. Stranger danger drives views and clicks. That's why they do this. And that's why they are the primary, inadvertent racist storyteller. Secondarily, we have our own social networks to blame for recirculating narratives of racial danger.

When storytelling about certain racial groups takes root in a society, racism becomes a cultural value system, one in which we automatically interpret antisocial behavior in certain communities as inherent traits of that group vs. 'our group.' This continues no matter how many articles we read about gang operations in those neighborhoods. We easily conflate the gang with the people of a certain skin color who live in a neighborhood.

SYSTEMIC RACISM = STORYTELLING HABITS + INSTITUTIONAL POWER

And this habitual storytelling behavior is the real foundation of systemic racism inside hierarchical institutions like your local police department, the wielders of the legitimate means of violence in modern nation-states. It is the combination of this dangerous storytelling habit with the volatile power structures of institutions like the police, the courts, the DMV, etc.

When administrators or operatives in law enforcement are not self-aware of racist storytelling as it occurs in their minds during the line of work, they are allowing their amygdala to drive their responses under the unfiltered influence of primitive stranger danger. This transforms backyard BBQ racist storytelling into violent repression, when no one saw 'that person capable of it.'

This process explains how even black policemen can exhibit racist behavior in the line of duty against their own community, when it makes no sense. But, more importantly, it explains why the battle for racial equality is really a battle for control over the dominant narratives depicting specific racial groups.

Until the stories change, systemic racism just won't.

SOLUTIONS

The antidote to systemic racism is, in my view, right in front of us, but not easy to institute. Police squads need to socialize across racial lines during work but, more importantly, after work. True, off-duty, social mixing not forced by squad car assignments is critical. Off-duty socialization is where ordinary folks let their guard down and are most able to listen to the real life stories of people they're hanging out with. This is the everyday crucible of empathy. If you don't use it, the stories we have about this group or that group will never change.

It's the suburbs especially, like Ferguson Missouri, where the narratives of black people need to change outside the police precinct HQ the most. It's where the journey is the most difficult as the % of suburbanites who are not white or who are mixed race continues steadily to grow.

Americans need to work harder to have backyard parties that look like the photo in this article. Especially white Americans. And not just among college students visiting a friend's house. But among working age adults, hosting genuine mixed race parties in their backyards. Start with your work colleagues. It's not hard. But, yet, we rarely do it. Our front doors seem to filter out an awful lot of America's racial diversity.