Is America a Racist Nation in 2021?

Is America a racist nation in the year 2021? I have a very strong opinion about that. Before I go there, I will share President Joe Biden’s thoughts on the subject. During an exclusive interview on the Today Show, broadcast on NBC, President Biden said, “No, I don’t think the American people are racist. I think after 400 years, African Americans have been left in a position where they are so far behind the eight ball in terms of education, health, in terms of opportunity.”
Biden has frequently employed the term systemic racism, which is used to describe when cultural institutions and systems reflect individual racism.
He has stated that systemic racism can be found in education, health care, criminal justice, the economy, and other large sectors of American life. “I don’t think America is racist, but I think the overhang from all of the Jim Crow (laws), and before that slavery, had a cost, and we have to deal with it,” Biden told Today Show Reporter Craig Melvin.
President Biden was responding to comments made by Republican Sen. Tim Scott, the nation’s lone Black Republican senator, who touched on the national conversation around systemic racism while giving the GOP’s rebuttal to Biden’s speech before Congress Wednesday night, April 28th.
“America is not a racist country,” the junior senator from South Carolina said, adding that he is an African American who has voted in the South his whole life. “It is wrong to try to use our painful past to try to dishonestly, shut down debates in the present.”
Scott’s racial identity and conservative politics have made him a rarity in Congress, where he has not been afraid to lean into both. And Wednesday was no exception. During his speech, Scott reiterated that he has “experienced the pain of discrimination.” But he also emphasized that “America is not a racist country.” He cautioned that “race is not a political weapon to settle every issue the way one side wants,” citing voting rights as an example.
I found it rather interesting that both our Democratic President, Joe Biden, and Republican Congressman Tim Scott both believe the America we live in today, is not a racist country. Ok then.
Still trying to observe my “social distancing rules,” I put questions on Facebook when I want to get a sense of how the public feels on a subject, rather than go stand on a street corner like I used to do before the Coronavirus. Here are some of the responses I got about the question, “Is America a racist nation in the year 2021?”
April Abney Sibert wrote: Yes, America is still racist today, very much so. So many Americans refuse to let racism go. Many people from older generations of white people are still instilling hate in their children and grandchildren today.
Sandra Spicer wrote: Yes, America is still racist today. If not, why do we have to fight all the time for everything? We have to march all the time. There are so many unsolved killings. Votes count, but we don’t.
Anthony Clark wrote: Yes, because on Jan. 6, 2021, the response to the attacks on the capital compared to the Black Lives Matter, (BLM), peaceful protest June 2, 2020, demonstrated how Black people and those who boned with Black people were treated for the attacks on the capital in Washington, D.C., the majority were Caucasians, while for the BLM peaceful protests, it was a mixture and still Black people were abused by white-controlled authorities. Even going back to the trial of O.J. Simpson, the country was divided with the majority of Black people supporting O.J. Looking at all the murders that happen from Police Officers with our Black people vs Caucasians, there are no comparisons. How often do you see and hear racist rants from Black people against Caucasians? Hardly ever and to be fair, if it is heard it is because we are provoked. America has many racist people who live here who will let themselves be known.
Raymond John Howard wrote: Racist compared to what? Many of our generations were told and believed that Europe was less racist than America. Look at Europe now with its openly racist political parties, concentration camps for refugees, skin-head attacks, etc. I thought that Latin America could not be as racist as here because so many people were mixed race. Look at Brazil now. Look at Santo Domingo. Both had official policies of “whitening” their populations, partly by encouraging White men to take Black mistresses. The view of the Japanese professional and political classes is that Black Americans have been scientifically proven to be inferior to Whites. I’d say scratch any country with a uniformly lightly skinned population by having many dark-skinned people visit or emigrate, and you’ll find racism as virulent as here, worse in fact, since the Whites here have slowly gotten used to having “Colored” people around.
Banita S. Wilson wrote: Personally, I feel that any record achieved prior to full integration is subject and FOS.
For the record, I have more than 5,000 “friends” on Facebook. They are a mixture of people from all nationalities, walks of life, faiths, and professions. Some are retirees, and others are still working in their careers, etc. Based on the few responses I received to my question and knowing four of the respondents, I have to say they were all African American. It’s clear, what they all believe, and that is that America in the year 2021 is still a racist nation, and I agree.
We still have a long way to go before we get to the bridge of fairness and equality across the board. A kazillion racial sensitivity classes and workshops still need to be hosted. They need to be mandatory at schools from Junior High through college. There are so many other things that also need to be done to eradicate racism. At the end of the day, however, I think April Abney Seibert really hit on something. When you are taught hate from the time you are a baby, then it is ingrained in your brain and in everything you do. How we fix that, I don’t have the answer. If you do, send an email to theramartin10@gmail.com.
Meanwhile: Don’t forget we have a Primary Election in PA on Tuesday, May 18. The polls open at 7 am and remain open until 8 pm. Check out my Civics 101 column in today’s edition of the SCOOP for voting information. If you have internet accessibility and want to know more about the upcoming primary, log on at www.PAVotes.com.