Systemic Racism - 1 HELPING MIDDLE AGE WHITE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND SYSTEMIC RACISM, PART 1: AN OVERIVEW Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D. Minnesota State University, Mankato Note: This is an excerpt from my book, ‘Essential Learning Theories: The Human Dimension’ published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2021. I am not an expert in critical race theory or systemic racism. I am a middle age white guy trying to come to grips with systemic racism and contribute where I can. I am just an old literacy professor trying to do my part. I may not get it just right, but I am trying. In this podcast, I will try to explain some things in ways that help some people to better understand. I don’t have complete enlightenment – and again - I may not get it just right -- but I’m trying. I refuse to abdicate my responsibility to do what I can on the issue of racial equity. OUTCOME The desired outcome is to eliminate systemic racism. That’s the big picture. It may take more than my lifetime for this outcome to be achieved, but it will be achieved. Whether it is in twenty years, two centuries, or two millennia, there will be a time when racism is a silly little blip in our human consciousness, an embarrassing asterisk in the story of humanity. However, human beings being human beings, we will figure out some other sorting mechanism to use to create categories, castes, and hierarchies. Humans have this innate human need you see, this craving, this addiction to find themselves better than somebody else. Some human beings also have another craving – to hoard resources and opportunities while depriving others. These two insatiable cravings (sorting and hoarding) are the basis of systemic racism. THE RACIAL EQUALITY MYTH. A common myth that serves to perpetuate systemic racism is the myth of sameness and color blindness as a cure for systemic racism. This is the mythical idea that, despite the current cultural and historic context, if we just pretended everything was the same, we can have a colorblind society and that everything will be equal for everybody and racism will be no more. Poof! Racism gone, just like that. That’s the colorblind racism equality myth. Equality comes from equal, meaning, the same. The same, the same, the same. But equality does not mean equity The cafeteria. Here is something to think about -- If everyone in the cafeteria were served the same quantity of the same soup, this would be caloric equality. However, if in that cafeteria, there was a sumo wrestler, an adolescent boy playing football, a gymnast, a 5-year old child, a 62-year old literacy professor, and an 88-year old person, the same caloric intake would be sufficient in some cases and severely lacking in others. Equality does not mean equity. The goal is racial equity.