President Biden, Senator Scott, and selective hearing (op-ed)

 

During President Biden’s first address to congress he said, “We have to come together to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the people they serve, to root out systemic racism in our criminal justice system and enact police reform.”

That wasn’t the first time Biden used the phrase “root out systemic racism”. 

During a 2020 Juneteenth celebration Biden stated “rooting out systemic racism” was the moral obligation of our time.  He repeated the sentiment when he accepted the Democratic nomination for President and made similar remarks during a Thanksgiving speech as President-elect.  After each occasion, Biden’s political opponents extracted the phrase “root out systemic racism” and demanded details.  They wanted to know if Biden accepted the premise - disparities proved systemic racism, and if he did, how was Biden going to root out all disparities between racial groups?  Since Biden’s political opponents viewed the elimination of all disparities an impossible task, they accused Biden of making empty promises.

When Biden said “rooting out systemic racism” in the past, he spoke in non-specific campaign language.   But during his first address to congress, Biden specifically said, “root out systemic racism in our criminal justice system”.  Now, statistics prove there are disparities when blacks are compared to whites throughout the criminal justice system.  If Biden believes disparities equal systemic racism, then “rooting out systemic racism” in this context means reducing the black incarceration rate and decreasing the number of deadly encounters blacks have with white police officers.  

Whether or not Biden’s definition of systemic racism is correct, or his interpretation of the data is accurate is irrelevant.   The issue here is how political opponents purposely take things out of context for the sake of controversy.

Case in point, after Biden’s address to congress, one right-wing pundit and school-choice advocate said, “He said it again in his speech, arguing that we need to “root out systemic racism” … If there is systemic racism, it's rooted in those who want to keep blacks in their place, denying them the same choice to send their children to quality schools that the affluent can afford.  Perversely, this means President Joe Biden is part of the problem he says exists.”

There’s no need to elaborate on the disingenuous nature of that attack. However, there is a need to elaborate on the specifics within the widely ridiculed Republican rebuttal to the president, delivered by Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) - a black man.

By now, everyone heard the phrase extracted from Scott’s speech – America is not a racist country.  Scott’s political opponents isolated that sentence from the rest of the speech and accused Scott of being willfully blind to the historical and systemic realities of America.  One critic even stated Scott denied his own lived experience.

That’s nonsense.  During Scott’s rebuttal he acknowledged his lived experience with racism and stated our healing process is not finished. 

Now, here are the specifics that were ignored.

First, Scotts said, “A hundred years ago, kids in classrooms were taught that the color of their skin was their most important characteristic.  And if they looked a certain way, they were inferior.  Today, kids again are being taught that the color of their skin defines them, and if they look a certain way, they’re an oppressor.”  Scott’s last sentence was referring to the executive order President Biden signed that reversed his predecessor’s ban on diversity training programs that incorporated “Critical Race theory” and taught the concept of “white privilege”.  Biden’s predecessor believed these concepts dangerously divided Americans into white oppressor groups vs. oppressed minority groups.

Here, Scott singled out and rejected racial essentialism.

Then Scott said, “From colleges to corporations to our culture, people are making money and gaining power by pretending we haven’t made any progress at all, by doubling down on the divisions we’ve worked so hard to heal. You know this stuff is wrong.  Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country.”

The statement - America is not a racist country - was directed at those who pretend America hasn’t made any progress and “use our painful past dishonestly”.

“America is not a racist country” should be a mission statement, not a statement extracted for mockery.

First published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 5/12/21