How can a historian deny racism?

On Monday, April 12, Jay Bergman, a professor of history at Central Connecticut State University, wrote a commentary titled “Perception and reality of racism are often at odds.”

In reality it is the opposite of what Mr. Bergman espouses.

Bergman criticizes Central Connecticut State University for establishing The John Lewis Institute For Social Justice. Early in his article, he states in reference to the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor that there is “a common misconception that white police are generically racist and kill large numbers of (Black people) because of their skin color.”

He tries to back this statement up by quoting Peter Kirsanow, a conservative member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. According to Kirsanow, in 2016 police killed 16 unarmed Black victims and 22 unarmed white victims. A Statistica study shows that the rate of police shootings of Black Americans are much higher than any other ethnicity at 30 per million. The rate is 23 per million for Hispanics and 12 per million for whites.

A Washington Post study showed that Black Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police officers than white Americans. Of all the unarmed people shot and killed by police in 2015, 40 percent of them were Black men even though Black men made up only 6 percent of the nation’s population.

Next Mr. Bergman denies that there is systematic racism in the United States. He says that “the charge is false.” As a history professor he is denying the true history of the United States. He is denying that the GI Bill discriminated against Black people; denying that many New Deal reforms excluded the vast majority of Black workers; denying that the Federal Housing Administration specifically excluded AfricanAmericans who wished to buy homes, and he is also denying redlining. These are only but a few examples of systemic racism in the United States.

It is incomprehensible to me that Bergman, a history professor, denies that racism exists in our country. Whites people have had affirmative action for centuries here as Black people were discriminated against.

If the John Lewis Institute helps students to learn the truth about America and learn to be activists against racism the more power to it and to Central Connecticut State University.