WN: People in constant denial of historic racism the world over ultimately drown metaphorically in “de Nile.” Such denial is all prejudice of course, willful blindness–well, in short, unadulterated racism!
I see this up close within our extended family. Attempts at discussing with such the reality of racism, and citing studies such as that highlighted below, are as useless as spitting into the wind–unless one wishes to be repeatedly gobsmacked.
Sigh. . .
excerpt:
The emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement almost a decade ago was predicated on the killing of Black people at the hands of law enforcement. In short order, though, that concern spurred a broader consideration of the ways in which racial discrimination or disadvantage is embedded in the systems that undergird American society, including law enforcement.
There were obvious effects. One was that people became much more likely to point to discrimination as the central cause of economic differences between White and Black Americans. Another is that this shift occurred only among Democrats and independents; among Republicans, there was no change. Instead, the rhetoric from Republican leaders rejected the idea that there existed systemic racism in the country. Suggesting that it did was cast as unpatriotic and ahistoric.
Black Lives Matter gained prominence at a moment when White Americans, particularly on the right, were already nervous about their social status. Demographers were projecting that Whites would no longer be a majority within a few decades, and older generations of Americans who are more heavily White saw younger, more heavily non-White generations emerging that espoused different political views generally. Donald Trump announced his candidacy in 2015, near the outset of the BLM movement, and his supporters were more likely than other Americans to say that they believed White Americans were the targets of discrimination.
Wayne Northey was Director of Man-to-Man/Woman-to-Woman – Restorative Christian Ministries (M2/W2) in British Columbia, Canada from 1998 to 2014, when he retired. He has been active in the criminal justice arena and a keen promoter of Restorative Justice since 1974. He has published widely on peacemaking and justice themes. You will find more about that on this website: a work in progress.
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