Photo by Jack Delano, Works Progress Administration (WPA). Durham, North Carolina, 1940. (Public domain, from Wikimedia Commons.)
On October 4, my post on BASTIAT’S WINDOW described my “Tempering Systemic Racism in Healthcare”—the first in a series of four related essays published by the Liberty Fund. Now, the entire series (four essays, four summaries, and the organizer’s introduction) is available at “Systemic Racism in Education and Healthcare” (October 2022).
Business professor Ramon DeGennaro kicked off the project by noting the intense interest in the idea of systemic racism. He also described systemic racism’s nexus with statistical disparities across demographic lines.
My essay criticizes those who dismiss the very idea of systemic racism and also those who accept the tenets of its theoreticians without question. Summarizing, I say that:
At its best, systemic race theory is the idea that (1) Slavery and Jim Crow imbedded overtly racist structures throughout American institutions; (2) Remnants of these structures still incentivize discrimination; and (3) Public policy should strive to reduce such malign incentives. At its worst, systemic race theory is an all-purpose pretext for gutting core principles of American constitutional governance and civil society.
As a child of the Jim Crow South, my own eyes and ears have witnessed the evil of state-organized racism and the lingering effects of that legacy. However, systemic racism activists err badly when they attribute all raw statistical disparities to racism. They do massive disservice by leaping straight from methodologically suspect data and dubious causalities to “demand policies lacking evidence of efficacy, vilify those who question their conjectures, and advocate breathtakingly authoritarian prescriptions.”
Darcy Nikol Bryan, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Florida, has a long history of serving Medicaid populations. Bryan draws on her experience in medicine to put the idea of systemic racism in context. She says,
I am not sanguine that structural biases are modifiable by expertise and government intervention. Respect for personal autonomy requires that a complex array of cultural, economic, and individual values inevitably form the health of a nation. Moral agency towards oneself and others is inherently unpredictable - but defines what it is to be human. The government cannot ensure healthy behavior in a free society.
She warns against simplistic, ever-expanding policy solutions, saying that money “can pile into bureaucratic hands with minimal effect.”
Finance professor Harold A. Black explores the presence of systemic racism in K-12 education and looks at some alleged curatives. He argues against impotent, destructive racial rituals in schools and questions the quality of data analysis underlying public policies aimed at mitigating systemic racism. He suggests that disparities are driven more by economic class than by race:
Professor John Stone finds that aggregating across race is misleading and that, “Economically disadvantaged children, both white and minority, enter school less well prepared for learning than their peers.” Stone shows that racial differences in educational achievement that are posited to result from systemic racism are instead driven by differences in economic well-being.
Sociologist John Sibley Butler says the success of Jews, Mormons, Japanese Americans, Nigerian Americans, and other sometimes-marginalized groups sharply contradicts the tenets of systemic racism theory. He says theorists overlook the power of social mobility to efface past racism and argues that, paradoxically, African-Americans achieved more in business and education in those regions where racism was strongest—not in states that were more accepting. In particular, he notes that historically black colleges and universities proliferated almost exclusively in states where racism was at its most virulent. He writes:
As a closed system of thought, systemic racism does not give attention to the mobility of people within America. America certainly had slavery, but it also stands out as one of the few countries in the world that ever fought against slavery. It certainly has and had racial discrimination and legalized segregation. It also has seen the development of Black success because liberty means that one can also create other routes to success, as was done by black southerners.
Following these essays, each author wrote a follow-up piece summarizing the connections between our four primary essays. My follow-up piece is summarized in the paragraphs above.
Darcy Nikol Bryan says that theories of systemic racism are “inherently political”—a point, I’ll note, which is sometimes made by the theorists themselves. In explaining the concept of systemic racism, she begins with an 1864 quote from Abraham Lincoln, part of which is as follows:
With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things,
Harold A. Black laments the pursuit of policies on the basis of faith rather than evidence—and activists’ stubborn resistance to evidence that contradicts their prior beliefs. He also decries the racism at the core of many anti-racist policies.
John Sibley Butler says that contemporary mathematical models “misbehave” because of their methodological shortcomings. He argues that, “One must develop models which take into account what people do, rather than who they are, to understand the dynamic of inequality.” In reviewing Butler’s essay, Black says:
As we used to say when I was growing up in Atlanta (with respect to the Civil Rights anthem), “white folks didn’t mind us overcoming so long as we did not come over.”
This modest collection of writings is a fine place for one to gain a firmer understanding of the idea of systemic racism and of the policy environment surrounding that concept. It was an honor to participate in its production.
There is no society on earth without. ruling tribe which oppress other tribes to a greater or lesser extent. This is human life, not a unique failing of the United States. The reason that millions of people risk their lives to come here is because we oppress less than any other country on earth. For centuries Blacks were our Untouchables; today we have Black Supreme Court justices, a Black Vice President and a Black former president. That is what makes our country great.
Wow! Based on the summaries, the articles sound rigorous, courageous, and hopeful. Can't wait for a deeper dive into each article. Reason, rigor, and goodwill are sure to help us find our way back to better arguments, and to a better way forward. Thank you Bob!