South Carolina lawmakers today voted to open debate over the fate of the Confederate battle flag flying over the grounds of the state capitol. Meanwhile, Walmart, Amazon, Sears, and eBay have all stopped selling Confederate flag merchandise. And Virginia Governor McAuliffe has ordered the Confederate flag removed from Virginia license plates.
I hope I’m not being churlish in suggesting that addressing racism by removing Confederate flags is an important start, but it’s hardly enough. Flags are symbols. Although symbols are important, their eradication doesn’t eradicate the racism they represent. It’s far harder to address racism that’s baked into our system – in education, in law enforcement, in countless other areas of our lives.
Consider: More black children are in all-black schools today than they were before the Supreme Court in “Brown vs. Board of Education” decreed segregated schools unconstitutional. Black and Latino children in K-12 schools receive less state funding per student, on average, than do white students.
Consider also: If I’m walking doing the street with a Black or Latino friend, my friend is far more likely to be stopped by the police and questioned than I am. Even if we’re doing the same exact thing, my friend is more likely to be arrested, convicted, and sent to jail. Black people are incarcerated at a rate five times that of whites, and Latinos at a rate double that of white Americans. Discriminatory policing practices such as ”stop and frisk” and ”broken windows” disproportionately target communities of color.
I’m all for removing Confederate flags. But removing the symbols of racism is far cheaper than eradicating racism itself. Yet until we respond to racism directly we won’t have accomplished much of anything. Robert Reich
I hope I’m not being churlish in suggesting that addressing racism by removing Confederate flags is an important start, but it’s hardly enough. Flags are symbols. Although symbols are important, their eradication doesn’t eradicate the racism they represent. It’s far harder to address racism that’s baked into our system – in education, in law enforcement, in countless other areas of our lives.
Consider: More black children are in all-black schools today than they were before the Supreme Court in “Brown vs. Board of Education” decreed segregated schools unconstitutional. Black and Latino children in K-12 schools receive less state funding per student, on average, than do white students.
Consider also: If I’m walking doing the street with a Black or Latino friend, my friend is far more likely to be stopped by the police and questioned than I am. Even if we’re doing the same exact thing, my friend is more likely to be arrested, convicted, and sent to jail. Black people are incarcerated at a rate five times that of whites, and Latinos at a rate double that of white Americans. Discriminatory policing practices such as ”stop and frisk” and ”broken windows” disproportionately target communities of color.
I’m all for removing Confederate flags. But removing the symbols of racism is far cheaper than eradicating racism itself. Yet until we respond to racism directly we won’t have accomplished much of anything. Robert Reich
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