I saw [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/FragileWhiteRedditor/comments/kyo25g/fwr_says_theres_no_such_thing_as_systemic_racism/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) Reddit post today and it sparked a few questions.
For context, I consider my self sort of knowledgeable of social justice issues, but I don’t understand this one that much.
The responding Redditor says that if you remove all the racists from a systemically racist system, the system still favors a certain ethnicity. I am in no way trying to argue this, and I don’t not think it’s true, I just don’t understand what systems are in place that are racist by design. I acknowledge that if it weren’t for my white privilege, I would probably know. I definitely think that the system is racist, but I always thought it was the people applying it unjustly, not the system itself.
Thanks
Edit: I understand this is a pretty common question and I should’ve better explained my question specifically as something like:
“I understand that many modern social systems are based on unjust, racist treatment of certain groups, be it slavery, Residential Schools, or otherwise. I understand that this has lasting impacts on our society, and these policies and practices continue to negatively impact minority communities to this day. It is evident to me that, for only one example, a racist judge, would apply harsher sentencing to a individual, due to their ethnicity.
My question specifically is, like the Redditor stated: How is it that, even once the racist individuals within the system are removed, the system still favors one ethnicity, and oppresses the other?”
Thanks to some very helpful, and precise replies I much better understand systemic racism as a whole, and my question is answered. Thanks to everyone who put in the time to explain.
In: Other
Well for the us police system in particular people argue that there is systemic racism for many reasons including that a) our country was established on the basis that only white straight Christian men have rights in this country and b) the police system was originally started not to “protect and serve” the community from all crime but to protect and serve people whose slaves had runaway. Given those two parameters (and many others not mentioned here) people state that since these systems were built with racial ideologies in mind over the years even though the public image and purpose of these services has supposedly changed, there has been a lasting, pervasive method of hiring and training in a way that upholds these ideologies in a way that purposely but under the radar targets people of color.
Not sure how it works in other counties but here in the states that’s the heart of it.
Does that make more sense?
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