In Reply to Tim Wise: America’s Past on Race Should Not Be Oversimplified

“The toxic consequences of drawing a crude line between America’s past and the state of our modern institutions cannot be understated.”

In a blog post this past summer on Medium, progressive activist Tim Wise compared the supposedly self-evident existence of systemic racism in the United States to Isaac Newton’s First Law of Motion, which asserts that “every object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force.” Wise suggests that since “historical events and patterns leave legacies,” the United States’ legacy of racism has a sort of “inertia” of its own.

Unfortunately for those such as Wise, the dubious notion that modern racial inequalities are intrinsically tied to a larger historical narrative of endless racism turns out to be at odds with reality.

Of course, the clearest error in thinking is apparent from the very beginning: Why would anyone believe that systemic racism behaves in the same way as a law of physics? Not only is the social reality of American life more complex (and infused with endlessly more variables) than a cosmic principle, there is also extensive evidence to suggest that a variety of institutions have taken steps to eradicate racial bias. Some examples include:

• The establishment of federally funded grants for minority-owned businesses.
• The institutional push for anti-bias training in police forces.
• The creation of the Batson Challenge, which allows for a possible retrial in court if evidence surfaces that a jury was selected in a racially biased manner.

I could go on; however, the main point is crystal clear: Why would a system designed to threaten the well-being of racial minorities also take such concrete and extensive steps to help them?

Furthermore, what is to be said about racial disparities in which black individuals outpace their white counterparts, such as when black applicants for medical schools are accepted at higher rates than white applicants? Does this serve as evidence that such systems were designed to be unfair to whites? Just as it would be absurd to make that claim, it is equally preposterous to deduce that every system in the United States is racist simply because of a. the existence of disparities and b. various historical facts about the country.