Does ‘Systemic Racism’ Explain Anything?

By George Leef

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

 

Ask any leftist intellectual why we have inequality in America and you’ll invariably hear about “systemic racism.” And from there, the next step is to declare that the only solution is a complete transformation of the U.S. into a collectivist utopia where government ensures group “equity.”

 

In his latest Bastiat’s Window post, Bob Graboyes discusses a Liberty Fund roundtable discussion of the notion that “systemic racism” is the cause of disparities in health care. Suffice it to say that it receives very rough handling.

 

Here’s a slice:

 

Thomas Sowell and Roland Fryer have investigated and measured the effects of systemic racism. Their analyses stress that (1) The impact of systemic racism on health and other variables is greatly overstated by some in the policy sphere, and (2) The mere existence of disparities does not constitute prima facie evidence of bias. Their work is strikingly exhaustive and persuasive. But purveyors of systemic racism theory are often disinclined to consider such evidence or to debate it dispassionately and honestly. (To be honest, some classical liberals may be too willing to dismiss the idea of systemic racism out-of-hand.)

 

Right — the purveyors of this theory stop acting like scholars the moment anyone challenges them. Suggest that government policies might be at fault or that the proposed “equity” remedies will be counterproductive, and you’ll get a blast of invective rather than an argument.

 

In the post, Graboyes discusses the four other participants, and I can’t resist copying what he says about Professor John Sibley Butler:

 

Sociologist John Sibley Butler offers the most strident, multifaceted criticism of systemic race theory. Systemic racism, he suggests, conflicts with the successes of Jews, Mormons, Japanese Americans, Nigerian Americans, and other sometimes-marginalized groups. Systemic race theory, he says, overlooks social mobility and is especially poor at understanding the African American experience in America. African Americans, he argued, fared better in states with powerful Jim Crow laws than in states with less overt racism. He notes that, to a greater degree, those who remained in Jim Crow states began businesses, built universities, and achieved higher degrees of education. He is unflinching in describing past racism, but also says, “Legal scholars are trying to persecute America, not explain its vast ability to create new opportunities.”

 

Read the whole thing.