- Mar 11, 2015
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- #161
Unaddressed systemic racism is, in my mind, the most important issue in the United States today. And it has been so since before the founding of our nation.
Slavery was America’s “original sin.” It was not solved by the framers of the U.S. Constitution, nor was it resolved by the horrendous conflict that was of the American Civil War. It simply changed its odious form and continued the generational enslavement of an entire strata of American society. In turn, the Civil Rights Movement struck a mighty blow against racism in America, and our souls soared when Dr. King told us he had a dream. But we were and still are far from the “promised land.” And even when America rose up to elect its first Black President, Barack Obama, we may indeed have lost ground as a collective nation along the way.
That is our legacy as Americans, and in many ways, the most hateful remnants of slavery persist in the U.S. today in the form of systemic racism baked into nearly every aspect of our society and who we are as a people.
Systemic racism and America today
John R. Allen writes on the origin of systemic racism in the United States and the ways in which it continues to impact, and even define, American culture and society today.
www.brookings.edu
