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Racism Isn’t in the Past

Editor, News-Register:

Every resident of America wants at least a middle class life consisting of: fair justice system; caring, protective public safety; dignified, fair wage; comprehensive, quality health care; respectable, affordable housing; good, equal schools; decent neighborhoods; strong, financial safety net; etc.

Does everyone, or at least most, in American society live in such an idealistic middle class society? Unfortunately, the answer is emphatically “no.”

According to the Urban Institute, “throughout this country’s history, the hallmarks of American democracy — opportunity, freedom, and prosperity — have been largely reserved for white people through the intentional exclusion and oppression of people of color.” Racism was in the Constitution’s three-fifths clause that set the census value of a slave at 60% of a free human being. Racism is slavery and Jim Crow and lynching and segregation in schools and transportation and neighborhoods and on and on and on.

“Racism has robbed black Americans from benefiting from the advancements they’ve fought for, bled for and died for throughout history. That reality manifests in myriad ways — from underfunded schools to the gutting of health care and social programs, to financial redlining, to mass incarceration, to voter suppression, to police brutality and more. And it is undeniably harming health and prematurely ending black lives,” said Michelle A. Williams, dean of the Harvard School of Public Health.

Juan Cole, Informed Comment, claims: “The 1960s legislation on voting rights and prohibition of discrimination were not enough. Our country needs new laws and policies to lift African-Americans out of the trap of systemic racism. The cumulative effect of poor schooling (because schools are paid for by local districts and are largely segregated), employment discrimination, redlining in the mortgage market, and a whole host of other formal or informal policies are keeping the George Floyds of the world down and distorting their lives, and their deaths. We need to ensure that all school districts are equally well funded.”

Racism isn’t in the past. It is virulent in America. We need a Racial Equality Act in the 2020s.

I want everyone to enjoy the idealistic middle class life I have enjoyed regardless of the color of their skin or the faith they believe in.

Bill Bryant

St. Clairsville

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