FIXING SYSTEMIC RACISM
To move this nation forward, we must do what is morally right and include everyone in our country’s prosperity and freedom while recognizing the racial injustices of the past.
In recent months we've heard a lot about systemic racism and how it impacts people of color in our nation. It's not a new occurrence or phrase; the insidious practice has been embedded in our culture and institutions since slavery if not before.
Spurred by the bold fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, and the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other African Americans across the country, the many injustices against Black people have been thrust to the forefront. Along with the brutality, we've had renewed discussions about the harsh reality of institutional racism.
As defined by USA Today writer N'dea Yancey-bragg, systemic racism refers to systems in place that create and maintain racial inequality in all facets of life for people of color.
White activists have joined to march against and speak out on this ongoing travesty. Leaders of all backgrounds have begun serious discussions about how we as a country can rectify this injustice.
Getting a glance into America's systemic racism problem
Adding to this discussion is the new film “Welcome to Pine Lake,” which can be found on multiple streaming services like Amazon Prime and CBS All Access.
I started watching the feature documentary without really knowing much about it. I like to approach a film with an open mind so I can enjoy the discovery. This time, that process was enthralling and enlightening. It also was disturbing.
I was drawn into the tale of a liberal small town 12 miles from Atlanta that is governed by women. The mayor, a progressive white woman, staunchly supported Stacey Abrams, the Black female candidate in the 2018 Georgia governor's race. All the Pine Lake City Council members are women. As are the police chief and the one judge, both of whom are African American.
Located on a beautiful lake with a sandy beach, the town initially appeared to be a calm, friendly oasis. That was before being shocked by scenes from a courtroom filled with impoverished Black people. At that point, I knew the town was predominantly white. Yet, only Black people were shown in court.
Turns out, African Americans lived in surrounding communities and traveled a primary highway that runs along the outskirts of Pine Lake.
Quickly it became clear that the town thrives partly on fines it reaps from traffic tickets and other infractions levied against Black people who don't live there.
While the current mayor and city council did not make the town's laws and policies, they continued to entrap Black motorists while failing to recognize and correct the injustices.
Pine Lake is a classic case of persistent institutional racism
Such cases can be found in towns, cities and institutions throughout the South, including Tennessee, and across the nation.
The filmmakers, director Elisa Gambino and her husband, cinematographer/editor Neal Broffman, started the “Welcome to Pine Lake” project as a close look at a small progressive Southern town run by women. But they soon realized they had a significant second story: discrimination and ingrained racial injustice.
Gambino says Pine Lake initially appeared to be so inclusive, but she soon realized what she was being told did not align with what she was actually seeing.
“I started wondering if the town's leadership sees itself as part of the race problem,” Gambino said. “I started to see Pine Lake as a microcosm for attitudes across the country.”
As in Pine Lake, systemic racism is embedded deeply into the foundation of our country's laws, policies, practices and procedures. Though the chains of
slavery were lifted with the Civil War, Black Americans are still fighting for freedom.
That struggle has continued through Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era of segregation, intimidation and lynching; and through the once-legal redlining that continues to impact Black neighborhoods.
Red-lining was a system used by the real estate industry and banks to decide which areas would get home loans. Neighborhoods where Blacks lived were outlined in red as risky investments. Such embedded discrimination persisted on through the Civil Rights Movement to today.
Systemic racism is evident in our school systems with, among other things, inequitable funding for Black schools. And in an economy that continues to deprive countless Black people means to a living wage.
It is evident in our legal systems and inherent in policing. In how young Black men are jailed for possessing the same drug for which white men are sentenced to community service, if sentenced at all.
And substandard health care renders Blacks more vulnerable to disease and death, as apparent in how COVID-19 has devastated the African American community.
A prime example of how systemic racism has limited and devastated African Americans can be found in the farming industry.
Over the years Black farmers, due to racism, have gotten little help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for they were (and still are) denied loans and assistance readily bestowed to white farmers. That has led to failures and foreclosures. From 1920 to 2017, the number of Black farmers dwindled from a million to 50,000.
This year alone, the U.S. government is issuing $46 billion in subsidies to farmers to offset the White House's trade war with China. John Boyd, founder of National Black Farmers Association, said, “That money went predominantly to white farmers and large corporate farmers.”
A 2019 report says 99 percent of the subsidies provided to farmers linked to the trade war with China went to white farmers. The Center for American Progress wrote that agriculture in the U.S. is a prime example of the ways structural racism “has robbed Black farmers of the opportunity to build wealth.” The Center went on to say that this racism has contributed to “the loss of more than 36 million acres of farmland between 1920 and 1978.”
Systemic racism is real and it is a contentious issue
There are some people, including those now in the White House, who will not acknowledge there is a race problem while also denying they are racist. Yet, their actions deliver a different message.
Case in point: An executive order that bans racial sensitivity training for government agencies and organizations that have contracts with the government. The White House claims that diversity and inclusion training is “unAmerican” or “un-patriotic.”
What? Truth is that those who deny and perpetuate institutional racism are unpatriotic.
As Time magazine reported: “Trump's Administration has repeatedly denied that discrimination against Black Americans is embedded in the political, economic and social structure of the country.” And there are others who know there is a problem but do nothing to make amends or significant changes.
Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, says: “Racism is not a partisan issue, and we need to stop making it a partisan issue. It's a question of morality.”
To move this nation forward, we must do what is morally right and include everyone in our country's prosperity and freedom while recognizing the racial injustices of the past.
We must join together to correct institutional racism.
Lynn Norment is a Memphis journalist who previously was an editor and senior writer for Ebony magazine. She can be reached at normentmedia@gmail.com.