i’m kind of confused
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The way people use the word racism usually just refers to personal prejudice. Systematic race is about how society is made in such a way that disadvantages racial minorities. Racial minority status varies from place to place.
Below is an example from a fictional society of white and black people.
Systematic racism: only children who do well on test ABC can get scholarship Z from the government. The test requires intensive study. Because of a long history of denying black residents the right to education and right to live in nice neighborhoods (e.g., see red lining and protective covenants) or get good jobs, black families are disproportionately unable to help their children do well on this test (by helping directly or by paying for tutoring and study aids). The result is 98% of recipients are white students despite white students only being 75% of this hypothetical society. The next generation of black adults are disproportionately less educated and less able to get good jobs. Just like their parents.
The outcome is called fair and just because of “merit” and no programs to help black students at all are made. Or better yet, low income programs are made but because of another set of factors, the beneficiaries of the low income programs are predominantly white again. For example, maybe the program requires a lot of parental support (often called engagement, like mandatory volunteer hours; my school was like that), but being in bad neighborhoods makes black families more likely to suffer from violence or crime or overall family instability, making the parents less able to support their child.
At no point did any one person need to be racist (harbor personal prejudices) for this to happen. The system itself is racist because it refuses to acknowledge or address the circumstances racial minorities were put into on purpose (literal white supremacists did it all on purpose). So the current non-prejudiced generation is not only benefitting from the effects of white supremacy, they’re tacitly okay with it being around by letting the system perpetuate the cycle.
As MLK said, “What good is having the right to sit at a lunch counter if you can’t afford to buy a hamburger?” Face value legal equality and the absence of personal prejudice isn’t enough. That’s why there are phrases and ideas like restorative justice.
MLK was fairly revolutionary. At around the time he was killed, he was moving toward what he called a poor people’s campaign to fight for a better life for all disadvantaged people. Because he realized the limitations of legal equality.
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