In response to longtime Democrat operative James Carville's recent remarks criticizing Woke "jagon," Bari Weiss hosts a symposium on system racism with John McWhorter, Lara Bazelon, Glenn Loury, Kmele Foster, Chloé Valdary and Kenny Xu. Says Loury:
'The invocation of “systemic racism” in political arguments is both a bluff and a bludgeon.
When a person says, for example, “over-representation of black Americans in prison in the United States is due to systemic racism,” he is daring the listener to say: “No. It’s really because there are so many blacks who are breaking the laws.” And who would risk responding that way these days? The phrase effectively bullies the listener into silence.
Users of the phrase seldom offer any evidence beyond citing a fact about racial disparity while asserting shadowy structural causes that are never fully specified. We are all simply supposed to know how “systemic racism,” abetted by “white privilege” and furthered by “white supremacy,” conspire to leave blacks lagging behind.
American history is rather more subtle and more interesting.
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