The malediction of American racism
On March 10, 2021, Vicky Nguyen, an NBC News Investigative and Consumer Correspondent, reported about the severe increase in anti-asian attacks here and elsewhere. “I’ve seen tremendous support from other communities, journalists and public figures who’ve since been working tirelessly to advocate for the AAPI (Australian Association of Psychologists) community, which continues to suffer from heinous verbal and physical assaults spurred by the pandemic.” Attackers blame Asians for the pandemic, a clear fallacy.
About half (47%) of U.S. hate crimes are based on race. Blacks, Native Americans, Hispanics, Arabs and other minorities continue to bear much of this abuse. Police are far more likely to kill Blacks: The Washington Post reported “Unarmed black men are seven times more likely than whites to die by police gunfire.”
According to Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, executive director of the African American Policy Forum, “Although Black women are routinely killed, raped and beaten by the police, their experiences are rarely foregrounded in popular understandings of police brutality.”
Hate groups such as the KKK, neo-nazis, and Proud Boys foment racism to incite others to join in their violence and to garner power. They use misinformation, ignorance, and fear to do this. Misinformation is false or inaccurate data, especially that which is deliberately intended to deceive. It has become highly contagious in rightwing media. According to the Psychology Dictionary: Misinformation Effect: “During memory recall experiments, the misinformation effect is normally prevalent whereby a participant will remember misleading information that the experimenter provided instead of information which was supposed to be remembered.”
Ignorance may be caused by a lack of education, low mental prowess, error or inferior information sources. Fear stems from worry, avoidance of situations or topics, memory of tense situations and unfortunate interactions with others. If one’s companions are racists, they will amplify your apprehensions. It worsens if the immediate community and social groups harbor hatred based on skin tone.
Eduardo Munoz Alvarez of Getty Images addresses the tremendous social cost of racism: “Today, African-american men who failed to finish high school are more likely to be behind bars than employed.” Steven O. Roberts, a Stanford psychologist wrote, “Racism is a system of advantage based on race. It is a hierarchy. It is a pandemic. Racism is so deeply embedded within U.S. minds and U.S. society that it is virtually impossible to escape. Just as citizens of capitalistic societies reinforce capitalism, whether they identify as capitalist or not, and whether they want to or not, citizens of racist societies reinforce racism, whether they identify as racist or not, and whether they want to or not.” Michael Rizzo, a postdoctoral fellow at New York University said, “Many people, especially White people, underestimate the depths of racism. A lot of attention is rightfully put on the recent murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and far too many others. But people need to understand that those horrific events are a consequence of a larger system. We want readers to walk away with a better understanding of how that system works.”
The country’s history of racism must not be forgotten. It is longer than that of the nation. Racism was used as the justification for slavery and White privilege.
Some wish to sanitize what is taught in our schools. This must not happen. Future citizens can learn from their forebearers terrible mistakes. Racism is deplorable, immoral and un-american!
Too many among us are brazen racists. We must reason with them and convince them they are wrong, that what they say and do is harmful not only to the victims, but to themselves and to the country.
This is the brightest light for equality and justice in the World. We can and must make it better for all of us.