Seemingly every day, we hear about racist incidents that suggest both America’s obsession with race and its inability to effectively address racial issues. That includes a recent incident in which a black Kansas City teenager was shot in the head and arm by a white man after accidentally knocking on the door while trying to pick up his younger brothers. Thankfully, the 16-year-old boy is expected to recover. But too often, the results are far more tragic, as was the case last year when an unarmed 25-year-old black man was shot more than 60 times by police in Akron, Ohio. Just days ago, a grand jury declined to indict the officers involved.
Public servants committed to effective governance need to do a better job of understanding the importance of race and how it continues to play a role in nearly every aspect of society. right.
This starts with precisely defining the term “race.” Most reputable biologists, geneticists, and social scientists say that race is a social construct, not a genetic or biological fact. As Michael Udell, a professor of public health at Drexel University, said in 2016, race is “too crude to provide any useful information” and “undermines our scientific understanding of human genetic variation.” It is a concept that has a social meaning of “hindering”. ”
More than a century ago, W.E.B. DuBois, one of America’s most acclaimed sociologists, used race to biologically explain what he understood to be social and cultural differences. expressed concern about what was being done. Many fans of his seminal 1903 book soul of black folkrepeats his oft-quoted statement about race: “The problem of the 20th century is a problem of the color line.” He ignored the conclusion, where he claimed that “colored castes” and racism were “created and sustained by capitalism.”
If race and racism are socially constructed to justify and support economic and social oppression, police brutality, voter suppression, economic inequality, and demographic change. Solving problems such as fear of , and many other issues requires a completely different way of thinking and navigation. approach.
First, let’s discuss one of the most significant demographic changes currently underway: the prospect of whites becoming a minority in the United States by midcentury. The Census predicts that by 2045, fewer than half of the population will identify as white. At the same time this is happening, the population of Americans who identify as people of color or two or more races is rapidly increasing. . Non-white Hispanics will soon make up one-quarter of the U.S. population.
White people’s fear of becoming a minority is real and should be discussed and rationally addressed. I have always been a minority. The worst part of it was the barriers and obstacles to success that were placed in my way by the dominant race. We believe that we have a better understanding of minority rights so that we do not repeat these mistakes again.
But while people of color may be the majority in America by 2045, that does not guarantee they will dominate society’s economic and social institutions. Nor does it mean forming political alliances based solely on skin color.
If we could somehow convince more working-class and middle-class whites that their interests lie less in race and more in real economic security and access to opportunity. If so, perhaps those in power cannot attempt to divide and conquer as much as they do. now. Worse still, its leaders fail to provide economic security for American workers of all races and classes except the very rich, often gaslighting and scapegoating them, often blaming American economic failures on Mexico and China. They blame minorities and immigrants from the United States. . Minorities do not set spending priorities, tax laws, economic policy, or the social agendas in which we live.
Those who seek to divide us seem obsessed with leveraging wedge issues such as access to voting. Abortion; Transgender rights. Teachings of Black Studies. Whether books about race, ethnicity, and gender should be banned to energize conservative white working-class voters. Sadly, too many white people who have lost economic status under both Democratic and Republican administrations believe racist propaganda.
Next year’s national elections are rapidly approaching, and presidential candidates have been announced, including former President Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and former United Nations Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. I hope the leading candidates are exaggerating racial metaphors to divide voters. The public and campaign contributors will reject them outright. We should demand that they do so. Consciously or unconsciously, praising governors and secretaries of state who deny Trump’s big lie about a stolen election while supporting many other racist and anti-democratic legislative actions We also need to raise the bar for mainstream and social media organizations that normalize speciesism.
Above all, religious leaders of all faiths have the moral right to speak out forcefully against elected officials, candidates, and media pundits who use racist dog whistles to divide our country. There is an obligation. Unfortunately, the opposite is very often the case. The silence of religious leaders, sometimes openly supporting far-right candidates who invoke racial terror, is puzzling and difficult to reconcile with the teachings of most religions.
After all, black people and other minorities want the same things from society and government as white people: economic security and opportunity, safe streets, great schools, respect and human dignity. Scientists and scholars like Du Bois tell us that race exists only as a social construct. now is the time, DeBuilds on race, its economic and political impact, and the motivations for building the “beloved community” that Martin Luther King Jr. inspired us to build more than 60 years ago.
governanceThe opinion column reflects the views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author. governanceeditor or management team.