FALSE – Systemic Racism In The USA

Introduction

“Systemic” or “Institutionalized Racism” in America is a myth. The statistics resoundingly contest its existence. But you would never know that if you watch CNN or MSNBC. Without a doubt, after you watch this 7-minute video, you’ll know the truth about how you and everyone else have been manipulated to believe in systemic and institutionalized racism. This well-spoken individual, Mr. Coleman Hughes, explains that its a matter of culture and not race when people fail to do well in their lives.

As Hughes explains, when you compare black Americans to black immigrants, you will find a large disparity in culture and quality of life.

“There’s a bigger picture way to test the systemic racism hypothesis; which is to take two populations where… it’s, it’s a very messy, crude science experiment… But to take two populations where you’re holding systemic racism constant, namely black Americans like myself and black immigrants especially black immigrants from the West Indies and their children, to talk about immigrants from Jamaica, Barbados other places in the West Indies and specifically their children their American-born children.”

Argument

“Columbia sociologist Van Tran has a great essay in which this difference is brought out. You find neighborhoods of black Americans right next to neighborhoods of black West Indians in New York. They’re equally segregated from white people, so it gets rid of, you know, the idea that being segregated by a seller; living around people who only look like you, is inherently a disadvantage. It gets around the policing issue because these populations aren’t being polluted… The police can’t tell the difference between the second generation West Indian and a black person. It gets around whatever level of systemic racism is or isn’t in the pipeline with regard to schools, and you find wildly different outcomes. You find, you know, the rate of high school graduation much higher for black West Indians. The rate of enrollment in college much higher. Rate of professional occupations much higher. Crime lower… right? So this suggests to me that there are… that the role of systemic racism to whatever degree it exists is minimal at this point...”

Full Transcript of the Interview Provided for Hearing Impaired

Coleman Hughes-
There’s a bigger picture way to test the systemic racism hypothesis; which is to take two populations where… it’s it’s a very messy crude science experiment… But to take two populations where you’re holding systemic racism constant, namely black Americans like myself and black immigrants especially black immigrants from the West Indies and their children, to talk about immigrants from Jamaica, Barbados other places in the West Indies and specifically their children their american-born children. So these are people you could not tell apart from black. Like you couldn’t tell, if I didn’t tell you, that I wasn’t the child of a Jamaican immigrant or something right? And you find that the thing about this is that these two populations differ in many ways. Some ways are very hard to quantify but they differ culturally they differ for all kinds of reasons because partially, because the kind of immigrant who gets out of Jamaica differs systematically; is going to be disproportionately intelligent, disproportionately hard-working… Whatever the traits are that get you from Jamaica to New York say that’s a cluster of attributes that, that makes that population differ but there’s there’s one thing that is not different which is: they are subjected to whatever level of systemic racism exists. Tomas Sowell has done good work on it. Back in the 70s he showed that second-generation West Indians living in the same city as black Americans were earning 58% more, right? So they’re both being treated to whatever degree badly by white people. Whatever system you want to suppose is holding black people back is equally affecting both of them… Uh, the Columbia sociologist Van Tran has a great essay in which this difference is brought out. You find neighborhoods of black Americans right next to neighborhoods of black West Indians in New York. They’re equally segregated from white people, so it gets rid of, you know, the idea that being segregated by a seller; living around people who only look like you, is inherently a disadvantage. It gets around the policing issue because these populations aren’t being polluted… The police can’t tell the difference between the second generation West Indian and a black person. It gets around whatever level of systemic racism is or isn’t in the pipeline with regard to schools and you find wildly different outcomes. You find, you know, the rate of high school graduation much higher for black West Indians. The rate of enrollment in college much higher. Rate of professional occupations much higher. Crime lower… right? So this suggests to me that there are… that the role of systemic racism to whatever degree it exists is minimal at this point and there’s a whole narrative built around the idea that this is the primary obstacle facing black people. It’s worth noting I don’t think most black people actually believe this because, there are various polls to cite here, but there’s one from Pew that that asked black people without college education “has your race held you back at all in life?” Sixty percent said no. It’s a recent Pew poll. Another Gallup poll asked “is bias the main issue facing you in jobs and housing?” Sixty percent again said no. The Harvard sociologist Ethan Fosse has done extensive polling of the black community and found that disconnected black youth, which are black youth who aren’t in schools and don’t have a job, the people on the lowest rung of society… Something around thirty percent of them think the system is rigged and seventy percent don’t. So what we’re getting is, we’re getting the voices of black people who believe the systemic racism narrative promoted to the most powerful media positions in our country. So we’re getting the impression that this is a uniform view, and it’s not. Right?

Interviewer-
So this is sort of the Jesse Jacksons, Al Sharptons…. They get moved up because they’re giving sort of simple answers. So I guess it harkens the question that I could ask this either way: what is it that the West Indian immigrants are doing right or what is it that the other folks are doing wrong? Yeah… Yeah, I mean you can answer that in either direction you wanna go first.

Coleman Hughes-
Well part of it is just immigration selection factors that I mentioned, right? So the the kind of Jamaican or Barbadian who makes it off the island to New York is likely to be disproportionately hard-working; disproportionately “X” for whatever “X” Factor is… And so, in that sense, the direct comparison can be misleading. But just analyzing why these two populations differ you find West Indian immigrants more likely to come from a two-parent home… More likely to have had a more classically socially conservative upbringing which is, you know, you don’t talk back to your parents, parents are rather strict. There are downsides, of course, to that style of parenting but basically what I’m saying is that there are cultural factors that are important that differ between these two groups. You find if there are many…. I mean this is where the conversation for many people gets especially uncomfortable. It’s the idea that every culture, every subculture is identical in the behavioral patterns that are inculcated and wherever there is some… Wherever there is a disparity in some outcome it’s not possible that culture accounts for some or most of that disparity; which I think is a very silly idea.

Interviewer-
Well yea, it’s completely nonsensical. Yeah, cultures are different. Different people and different groups put different emphasis on certain things some put more on family some put more on education some put more on sports or whatever the hell, whatever the hell it is… So when you hear Larry Elder make the argument you know something around until 1972 the black family had a rate of staying in marriages and then he lays out the reasons that he believes policies of the Democrats destroyed all that… That that obviously resonates with you right? Because you’re you’re giving me some piece of this both answers I think resonate or went back to family rates of marriage and some sort of conservative ideals.

Coleman Hughes-
Right. Well yeah I mean that that’s a very complex…

Interviewer-
People hate when you talk… when anyone talks about this… about family. People just absolutely hate it.

Coleman Hughes-
It is a fact that black… that the rate of two-parent homes in marriages was pretty similar to the white rate until the 60s. It is a, it’s a matter of scholarly dispute as to what was the cause… I think it’s certain at this point there was no one cause. Welfare state may have had something to do with it but I think it may have just been changing norms in the culture. Because we’re seeing the same thing happen in the white working-class as well now with the decline of two-parent homes; to a lesser extent than has happened in the black community.