Does America Have a Race Problem?

            The cries of racism are more shrill and louder than they have ever been in our nation. Yet, the term racist or racism means less now than it has ever meant. Someone stated that “nothing is racist if everything is racist.” This is a true statement. If everything is racist, then racism is the norm for that society. If everything in the United States is racist, there is no racism in the United States!

            The socialists who are trying to destroy our constitutional government are using race to divide and conquer Americans. I believe that there are racists in America, but I also believe that they are relatively few. This is especially true when compared to the millions of people who are called racist!

            In an effort to understand exactly what is meant by racist or racism, I went to a dictionary for a definition. Merriam-Webster online dictionary defined racism as “a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” The Free Dictionary online defined racist as “the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is a superior to others; discrimination or prejudice based on race.” 

In other words, a racist is any person that is intolerant, prejudiced, or bigoted against another person or group of people of a certain race – or against a person or group of people that are not a certain race. If any person – White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Mexican, or whatever – thinks that their race is superior to every other race, that person is a racist no matter to what race they belong.

Most Americans – particularly those who voted for Barack Obama for President in 2008 – thought that electing a Black man as President would end racism in the United States. His election made the race problem worse than it had been for several previous decades.

Now we are being told that the United States has been racist since its beginning and fought the Revolutionary War to maintain the institution of slavery. We are told that even our founding documents – the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States – are racist. I recently learned that highways are racist, and today I learned that soap dispensers are racist. We obviously have systemic racism from the top to the bottom of our nation! Yet, if everything is racist, nothing is racist.

I also sought understanding about systemic racism and found this definition at Cambridge: “policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization, and that result in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race.” 

If the United States is guilty of systemic racism, only one race would be thriving, and the leaders of the nation would be coming from only one race. For example, Whites should be the only race thriving if the United States has systemic racism. That would mean that there could not be any presidents, vice presidents, governors, mayors, sports stars, CEOs of corporations, etc. that are of any other race. We know that this is not true and is becoming less true with time.

President Barack Obama is a Black man. Vice President Kamala Harris is a Black woman. Tim Scott is a Black senator, and Maxine Waters is a Black congresswoman with many other Black representatives joining her there. Oprah Winfrey is a famous Black television star, and Meghan Markle is a Black woman married to Prince Harry. There are thousands, maybe millions of other Black, Asian, Hispanic, and Mexican leaders in our nation. This number does not include all the Black super stars on football and basketball teams. It also does not include citizens of Asian, Hispanic, or Mexican descent who are leaders. This site gives information on the racial makeup in the current Congress.

            About a quarter of voting members (23%) of the U.S. House of Representatives and                                Senate are racial or ethnic minorities, making the 117^th Congress the most racially and                            ethnically diverse in history. There has been a long-running trend toward higher numbers                        of non-White lawmakers on Capitol Hill: This is the sixth Congress to break the record                            set by the one before it.

Overall, 124 lawmakers today identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander or Native American, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Congressional Research Service. This represents a 97% increase over the 107^th Congress of 2001-03, which had 63 minority members.

Among today’s senators and representatives, the overwhelming majority of racial and ethnic minority members are Democrats (83%), while 17% are Republicans. This represents a shift from the last Congress, when just 10% of non-White lawmakers were Republicans. Our analysis reflects the 532 voting members of Congress seated as of Jan. 26, 2021.

            How can the United States be systematically racist when citizens elect a Black president, a Black vice president, a Black senator, and thousands of Black, Asian, Hispanic, and Mexican representatives, governors, mayors, and other leaders – with the numbers increasing? It is not possible! However, I will admit that there are racists and bigots in the United States, and I believe that they come from every race.

           Most Americans judge people on their character and not the color of their skin. I hardly noticed the difference in races – I saw the difference but it did not matter – until the past dozen years. Now, I cannot NOT notice it because of the cries of racism and racist.

My husband and I have trusted our cars and trucks to a Black mechanic and his family for nearly four decades. We did not take our business to him because of the color of his skin. We went to him the first time on a friend’s recommendation, and he proved to be an excellent, fair, and honest mechanic. If he had been anything less, we would have taken our business elsewhere.

            Although the heritage of both my husband and I and our posterity to this point is White European, my extended family is a mixture of all races. We have family members who are Alaska Native, Asian, Black, Hispanic, Mexican, Native American, and several Central and South American. We know that certain family members are other races, but it makes no difference because they are family.

            This is the way that America should be. We should treat each other as human beings no matter the color of our skins. We should not expect anyone to be less of what they are, whether they are Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, Mexican, or whatever. God created them the way that they are, and we are all His children. We are family, and we should start acting like family! We are Americans and should work together to make American as great as it can be!