My great-grandfather’s name was W.E. Shortridge. Most people won’t recognize the name, but he was a prominent figure in the Civil Rights Movement and the fight against systemic racism. I discovered this when my father told me his grandfather’s picture was in the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. I was shocked because he’d never mentioned his grandfather before, so I asked for his name and began to research who he was and his involvement in the movement.
W.E. Shortridge was a very successful businessman and provided a lot of the funding for the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. Martin Luther King referred to him as “The Connector” because of his ties and his ability to raise money for the movement. As the president of the National Funeral Homes Directors Association, he would travel the country speaking to other funeral home directors about the movement and how they could support it. He was a Christian man. He served as a trustee and treasurer at Bethel AME Church, he served on the executive board of Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and he was the founding president of the Birmingham chapter of the NAACP. Beyond that, he even survived a drive-by assassination attempt while outside of his home! He died unexpectedly of a heart attack in May of 1964—two months before the passing of the historic Civil Rights Act.
The arguments for systemic racism today largely paint a narrative of continuous black oppression: from slavery to Jim Crow to redlining to inequities today. However, are the challenges today the same as those fought against by my great grandfather and others in the Civil Rights Movement? Can racial inequities today automatically be viewed as evidence of systemic racism? In what follows I will argue that the systemic racism that my grandfather opposed is not prevalent today, and that much of what people call systemic racism today is in fact a product of different cultures as opposed to different skin colors. As Christians, it is important that we seek truth and don’t believe narratives that aren’t true—even if they are repeated again and again.
Systemic Racism Yesterday
The Cambridge Dictionary defines systemic racism as “policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization, and that result in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race.” The time in which my great-grandfather lived was a time when systemic racism was prevalent throughout society, especially in the South. During this period, the South was controlled by what were known as Jim Crow laws. These laws, imposed by whites, created a caste system in the South where blacks were treated as lower-class citizens. It forbade racial mixing in public places such as public transportation, restaurants, and movie theaters. Black and white children even had to attend separate schools. These laws were also often used to discriminate against blacks in housing and employment opportunities as well. When we look back on the Civil Rights Movement, these impartial and unjust laws were what needed to be removed.
After World War II, many of these laws were changing throughout the South and race relations were gradually improving, but it wasn’t until the Civil Rights Movement and the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that these laws were completely done away with and legalized racial discrimination was ended. This legal change being the case, the question remained: What impact would these laws have on the system and equal opportunities for blacks?
In the 1960s, blacks still faced potential discrimination and prejudice in areas of housing, employment, and education. This is why President Lyndon B. Johnson issued an executive order requiring all government contractors and subcontractors to take “affirmative action” in ensuring job opportunities for minorities. He also established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which required the private sector to submit an annual report that would detail how many minorities they employed. These efforts became known as Affirmative Action and would quickly spread to higher education to ensure minorities were given opportunities to succeed.
Systemic Racism Today
Nearly six decades later the question is, “Does systemic racism exist today, and to what degree?”
Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that Affirmative Action in higher education was unconstitutional and that universities could no longer use race as a determiner for college admissions. Not in all cases, but in many, black students, on the basis of affirmative action, were admitted into universities with lower GPAs and SAT scores than their white and even Asian counterparts. Ironically, for all the troubles associated between blacks and whites in America, it was Asians who brought the case to the Supreme Court. They were the ones most negatively impacted by this legal and systematic discrimination, while blacks were the ones who benefitted most, based solely on their race. I guess you could call it a version of “black privilege.”
Proponents of affirmative action do not see it that way, however. They believe blacks are still at a disadvantage due to the disparate impact of the historical injustices of slavery and Jim Crow. They argue disparities between blacks and whites today are a direct result of past injustices and that blacks aren’t on equal footing and therefore still require special privileges and considerations to ensure equal opportunities.
For instance, Ibram X. Kendi, an author and professor at Boston University, believes all statistical disparities between blacks and whites can only be attributed to discrimination and injustices. He defines these disparities as racism; therefore, we must make policies and laws to reduce those statistical disparities and ensure more equal outcomes. He calls this “antiracist.” As he has stated, “The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.”[1] (Kendi has since changed this language in the book’s most recent kindle edition.)
1. Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist, First Edition (New York: One World, 2019), 19.
The problem with Kendi’s premise is that he never proves that disparities between blacks and whites are only the result of past discrimination. It’s simply assumed. In his mind, the only other explanation would be to say black people are inferior, and to him, that’s racist. However, we aren’t limited to those binary choices of discrimination or inferiority. There are many other factors that should be considered, and one of the most important factors overlooked is differences in culture.
Culture—Not Color—Makes the Difference
Culture is what determines what we value and prioritize. While cultural studies have become a cottage industry today, with many technical definitions muddying the waters, the simple fact remains that what a community celebrates (or condemns) will shape the people who grow up in that culture.
For example, if one culture values basketball and makes it a priority over education, and an individual in that culture spends 1000 hours a year practicing basketball, it should not surprise us that such a culture would produce a large number of college athletes. Meanwhile, if another culture values math and science, and individuals within that community spend 1000 hours a year studying, it should not surprise us to find an oversized number of doctors, engineers, and scientists applying for entrance into various STEM programs. Why would we expect those divergent cultures to produce equal results? One culture is going to be more represented in basketball and the other will be more represented in the fields of math and science.
On comparison, if we simply looked at the statistical inequalities in those areas and used Kendi’s logic, we would have to assume the disparities in the areas are only due to one group being discriminated against or inferior in basketball and the other being discriminated or inferior in the fields of math and science. Is the lack of Asian representation in the NBA the result of discrimination, or are Asians incapable of dribbling and shooting a basketball? I don’t believe anyone would make those claims. We would inquire and theorize other reasons for the lack of representation.
Unfortunately, that type of critical thinking isn’t allowed when it comes to blacks being underrepresented in areas such as math and science. Predominately, scholars like Kendi automatically conclude the lack of representation is due to systemic racism. This type of logic is often used to make the argument for systemic racism in areas such as policing, income inequality, and healthcare. The fact that there are inequalities between blacks and whites in these areas is automatically deemed evidence of systemic racism, but the premise falls apart when you add other racial groups to the equation.
To take another example, Asians have a lower incarceration rate than whites, Indians are the number one income earners in the country, and Hispanics have a lower infant mortality rate than whites. Are the disparities between these groups and whites evidence of systemic racism? Are whites now the victims of systemic racism? Once again, I don’t believe anyone would argue that. So what can we conclude? Perhaps, the bug is in the system of inquiry, not in systemic prejudice. On balance, statistical disparities between groups can’t automatically be credited to systemic racism. More evidence is needed.
Systemic Racism Revisited
Claims of systemic racism must be proven and not assumed. For instance, when these claims were made in the United Kingdom in 2021, they commissioned an independent council called the “Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities” to conduct a study into whether systemic racism existed within the country. This council, composed of mostly minorities, determined there was no evidence of systemic racism in the country. What they determined was that race was not the determining factor for outcomes. They gave examples that Indians in the country were doing extremely well but Pakistanis were not. Also, African immigrants like Nigerians were thriving, while blacks from the Caribbean were struggling. They also found some of the biggest struggles were coming from white districts.
Based on this empirical study, therefore, the council admitted there were racial disparities, but they determined “geography, family influence, socio-economic background, and culture and religion” played an outsized role in determining results. This study was done in the United Kingdom and not the United States. But based on how various minority groups are succeeding in the country (as I showed previously), the more likely explanation is that these racial disparities are likewise a result of factors beyond skin color. When incorporating all racial groups, the statistical evidence does not show race as the determiner of outcomes today. It is likely the same factors the British Commission report mentioned which for decades have been pointed out by men like Thomas Sowell and Shelby Steele.
In the end, therefore, when we look at the black community and we see the influence and imitation of rap and street culture and we see that over 70% of children are born out of wedlock and many of those children are growing up without a consistent, present, and active father in their life, we can’t simply ignore these factors when evaluating why blacks may be overrepresented in the judicial system or why they may be underrepresented in areas of achievement. When dealing with these important issues we must be diligent and wise and open to considering all possibilities, and not merely blame everything on systemic racism.
If my great-grandfather were alive today, he would likely marvel at the real racial progress that has been made. Certainly, disparities still exist, but it is overly simplistic to allege “systemic racism” as the unproven boogeyman lurking behind every disparity. We would do better to heed the words of Dr. Lionel Newsom, another prominent man from my great-grandfather’s generation. In the same year the Civil Rights Act was passed (1964), he wisely noted that the freedom that comes with equal opportunity (unsegregated facilities, no formal discrimination in hiring, etc) does not necessarily lead to equality (the same outcomes as other ethnicities). Rather,
Equality can come only through individual efforts. In order to achieve equality people must be able to communicate to understand and appreciate each other and to give and take. One must strive for excellence in every undertaking in order to build self-esteem and respect from others. These are the things that finally lead to equality. Freedom may be granted but equality must be achieved.
The lack of equality today doesn’t automatically mean blacks lack the freedom to achieve it.
