Only, that's not at all what I said.
What I said was
You understand that I was paraphrasing you, right? I wasn't trying to match what you said word for word.
I said...
"
You said white people are calling the police on black people because they've got racist beliefs..."
You said...
"
They need to stop assuming a black in a white neighborhood is a criminal up to no good."
You understand that is a racist belief, right? If someone assumes a black person in a white neighborhood is a criminal....that's a racist belief.
So what part of how I worded it is wrong? You don't think this is a big social problem?
Systemic racism is different from blatant racism.
I get that you and others think that....and if we were talking about racist policies or laws I'd agree. It seems like that's not what people mean though....
When a person reacts differently to a situation because of the colour of a persons skin, then that is a form of systemic racism.
That's exactly the definition of interpersonal racism. It's a person treating someone differently because of their race.
e.g. A person living in a white neighborhood sees a black person wandering the street, they get worried, they get scared, they consider the person is suspicious, they pick up the phone and call the police.
A person living in a white neighborhood sees a white person wandering the street, they ignore this and continue on with what they were doing.
How is that different from a racist person? You aren't even talking about a system anywhere in that example....you're literally talking about a racist person with no mention of a system whatsoever.
Where is the "system" in this example? You can call an individual a system all day but that doesn't make it so...words have meanings.
The person in the first scenario isn't necessarily racist. They don't necessarily hate blacks, but for some reason they got nervous, got scared and thought something was out of place.
Of course they're racist! You just said that the whole reason they got scared is because person is black. If you think a person is a criminal because of their race....that's a racist belief. You're literally making a moral judgement about someone based on nothing but their race.
Other examples of systemic racism is in the court system. A white does a crime, tells the judge they are sorry, that it was the first time and that they have learned their lesson, the judge grants leniency and gives a small punishment. A black does the same crime, says they are sorry, that it was the first time, the judge either wants the neighborhood people to feel safe or wants to show this person that there are serious repurcussions for committing crimes so give a average or high punishment.
First of all...there's very few crimes that are ever going to be "the same crime". If you get caught speeding 10mph over the limit and someone else gets caught speeding 10mph over the limit....that's the same crime. Two people charged with something like simple assault didn't necessarily commit "the same crime" even if it resulted in the same charge.
Regardless though, let's pretend that two people are exactly the same in every respect, and their only difference is race, and like you said....the judge gave the black person a longer sentence.
That's a racist judge. I can agree it's wrong and shouldn't happen...but just because a judge made a racist decision doesn't mean that the justice system itself is racist. There's literally all sorts of people in that didn't do anything racist. The cops who arrested him didn't do anything racist, the prosecutor didn't do anything racist, the defense attorney didn't do anything racist, the jury didn't do anything racist, the laws themselves and policies of the court aren't racist.
Literally the only racist thing in this scenario is the judge. Again, that's interpersonal racism....it's got nothing to do with any system.
Or perhaps a white guy in a high up position needs to hire someone, he asks amongst his friends for people to hire (his friends happen to be white because that is just typically who he has happened to mix with socially), one of his friends suggests a friend of theirs who is qualified for the job and vouches that he is a good hard worker. This friend of a fiend also happens to be white, because this friend also just tends to have white friends who are in the same social circle. The white guy gets the job. None of the hiring or friends are racist. But this scenario is an example of systemic racism. The whites get the jobs, the blacks miss out, because of the system of friends prioritising on friends.
This one is a little different because I'd actually call that cronyism.
Definition of cronyism | Dictionary.com
As you can see...the definition of cronyism fits exactly what you described.
the practice of favoring one's close friends, especially in political appointments.
You aren't wrong to say that this scenario discriminates against black people....but it also discriminates against every white person who isn't the friend of the guy hiring.
It's not discrimination against people based on race...if this guy's social circle was mostly black people, then he'd be hiring a black person. It's discrimination against people based on friendship/social circles.
I don't know why you're having such a hard time coming up with examples. We had a whole period called Jim Crow where laws specifically discriminated against black people. It resulted in people engaging in racist behavior even if they weren't racist....because they had to. It was the law.
See the difference? Laws and policies are part of entire systems that create racial discrimination regardless of whether or not the people in those systems have any racist beliefs or opinions.
