Systemic Racism Isn’t a Belief System
By: Sarah Jo Ward
Tags: Equity, Research, Systemic Racism, Blm, Justice

“I don’t believe in systemic racism” someone said to me tonight. I stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what that meant. “Well, what about all of the data that demonstrates that systemic racism is a thing?” “I don’t know if all of that data is real,” he said.

I could empathize with at least this last part. Research has a notoriously problematic past that privileges some ways of knowing over others and can even be influenced by corporate interests and politics. Research is a part of our cultural and sociopolitical system so, yeah, all of that. That said, research (at least in my field) has come a long way in addressing its anti-black, sexist, Western-centric ideologies. It’s not perfect and there is work to be done, but there are ways of keeping yourself in check if that’s what’s important to you. Anyway, that wasn’t his point. Instead, we continued to talk about systemic racism and data and democratic run cities, all the while, I had an uneasy feeling in my throat — one that said: “You’re missing the nugget. What’s the nugget?”

I don’t believe in systemic racism.

I would love to tell you that I had a response — but even now, even after working to advance justice and equity for over a decade, I couldn’t create an entry point into a generative conversation. I just stood there like an idiot: “But… all of that data.”

Literally, I sat back down in my chair. Figuratively, I sat back down in my mind. What should I have said? What would have helped move this conversation along? Is this one of those times that I’m supposed to just say forget it, not worth the time? Would I then be another white person giving up on another white person even though black folks are unfairly carrying the intellectual and emotional weight of doing the work? I sat in it. I really sat in it. And then it hit me: I had missed the nugget! I had missed the problem in his argument and so I didn’t address the giant bleeding wound in front of me, I was too worried about the headache.

Systemic racism isn’t a belief system.

Systemic Racism isn’t a belief system because it’s a theoretical concept. It’s a theoretical concept that shows the ways that black and brown people are continually marginalized in our culture across all sectors — housing, education, criminal justice, corporate America… the list goes on. Systemic racism doesn’t have to support your worldview or ideology to be a thing. It frames a particular kind of argument that is derived from lived reality and experience captured in data. You don’t have to believe in it for it to be real.

In academia, theoretical concepts are ideas that are either derived from the data (grounded theory in qualitative work) or are tested by the data (hypothesizing in quantitative work). Since systemic racism has been both derived from data and tested by data, we can assume that there’s been a shit ton of work on systemic racism (assume nothing — go look it up). When researcher after researcher in field after field looked at big, quantifiable data, they tested for systemic racism and they found it. When researcher after researcher, myself included, in field after field looked at their qualitative data, they found patterns in lived experience that are indicative of systemic racism.

So why does this matter? It matters because even if you happen to uncover your own theoretical concept that is proven by and stems from actual data that demonstrates that systemic racism is not a factor contributing to the welfare of black people — systemic racism as a construct, still exists. You might not like it. You might feel like you don’t want to believe in it and it very likely doesn’t match your worldview, especially if you’re white and yet…

It’s not Santa Claus.

Also, for those of you who are thinking to yourselves “OK, I’ll go do that research since obviously I’m right about this so this research must not exist!” I promise you, it is out there, that bullshit already exists. How do you think systemic racism as a theoretical concept came to be? It was because some smarty pants researchers said to themselves: “There must be something else here besides this racist nonsense written by white people telling me that I’m not as good or as worthy as they are.” (See earlier comments about racist research practices).

The point of a theoretical construct is to identify ways to explain a phenomenon. For example, in my own research, I looked at how art museum practices continued to marginalize black communities and black voice — regardless of whether or not the museums considered themselves to be democratic or liberal or leftist or inclusionary or respectful of diverse voices or empathetic. Racism existed in the systems and it showed up in the day-to-day work and relationships of the employees. Systemic racism isn’t a liberal or democratic principle that is for believing in or not believing in — it’s a way of framing a very real condition of our country. Furthermore, when we say systemic racism, we’re not talking about a bunch of KKK members run amok in our institutions (although, they may be), we’re talking about things like affinity bias, wage disparity, and the school-to-prison pipeline. We’re talking about tangible problems that just because you don’t like them, doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Here’s the other part that makes “I don’t believe in systemic racism” a motherload of a problem. Systemic racism is about systems — it’s not about your own personal experiences or your friend’s friend’s experience that one time in medical school. I know we can only understand from our own experiences, I get that but if you think you’ve been nice or welcoming to black people so there must not be a problem — then you’re missing the systemic part.

There are caves in France that have been making blue cheese (I’m sorry, bleu cheese) for so long that the mold spores live in the cave air. All the French have to do is put their cheese in the cave and wait until it’s inoculated. There’s no chance that it won’t be inoculated — the spores love the cheese, the cheese loves the spores, and we love eating it. If we apply this metaphor to systemic racism then everything we create is the cheese, systemic racism is the inescapable mold. So, even if you share your cheese with a black person because you’re nice and welcoming, the systems that created the cheese still exist.

Finally, it begs the question: What is a belief system? A belief system is a set of stories and realities that help us to interpret our own individual worlds. Belief systems are personal, even when they can be shared. I don’t believe in systemic racism because it fits into my worldview, systemic racism as a concept exists and it defines how I interpret data.

As we white people and allies set forth to have uncomfortable conversations, we need to be better prepared to respond. Someday someone might say to you that they don’t believe in systemic racism. You’ll get mad, throw your fists in the air and say: “How can you not believe data?!?” but you too will have missed the point — you’re having separate conversations. It’s not about believing in data or systemic racism, it’s about interpreting the data. If you should ever have this conversation with someone, ask what it is exactly that they don’t believe in and then say: “OK, if you were a researcher, and you saw these numbers and heard these experiences, how would you explain this phenomenon?” They’ll probably say something annoying like: “Inner city crime!” Be ready to demonstrate more data and ask them again. You may not bring that person over to your dirty liberal viewpoint but if you can shake the conversation up you might help them realize the difference between a belief system and a fact.

Fact: Here are the numbers.

Fact: This is what we’re using to interpret those numbers.

Fact: Systemic racism exists.

And that’s when things get interesting because instead of saying that they don’t believe in systemic racism, they’ll have to say: “This doesn’t fit my worldview!” Internally (because gloating is for the obnoxious) you will know that you’ve just proven your point.