There are multiple lies – in addition to astounding, willful ignorance – in the following tweet by the VA GOP(Q), which claims (100% falsely) that “systemic racism is a myth perpetrated by leftists to keep people angry at one another for political again. In fact:
a) systemic racism is VERY real
b) its reality has nothing to do with “leftists” (which, in the minds of Republicans, is anyone in this country who isn’t an all-out MAGA/Trump cultist)
c) in fact, Rs are the ones who relentlessly stoke anger/fear/bigotry in order to fire up their “base” and win elections (this goes back to the infamous “Southern Strategy,” Richard Nixon, Lee Atwater, etc.);
d) etc.
Also, as Chris Ambrose points out (see his tweet, below), this is the same party whose governor (Glenn Youngkin) has sought to suppress/whitewash the teaching of Black history, whether about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., segregation, Barack Obama, etc. And, of course, keep in mind that the Republican Party is led by Donald Trump, a virulent racist who – among many other things – talked about “shithole countries” (in his warped/racist mind, countries that aren’t mostly White, like in Scandinavia) and even promoted the nasty/racist “Birther” lie against Barack Obama, our nation’s first Black president.
Per the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops – not exactly a flaming “leftist” organization! – here’s what systemic racism and why we need to fight against it.
Also, although it’s highly unlikely that the VA GOP(Q) will actually read anything on this topic, everyone else should, so here’s a list (and here as well) of books on systemic racism and racial injustice:
- Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum
- Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
- A Terrible Thing To Waste: Environmental Racism And Its Assault On The American Mind by Harriet A. Washington
- From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America by Elizabeth Hinton
- Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class by Ian Haney López
- Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents Hardcover
- Half American: THE EPIC STORY OF AFRICAN AMERICANS FIGHTING WORLD WAR II AT HOME AND ABROAD
- “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”
By Michelle Alexander - “White Rage” By Carol Anderson
- “Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America” By Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
- “Between the World and Me” By Ta-Nehisi Coates
- “The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America” By Richard Rothstein
- “The Fire Next Time” By James Baldwin
And many, many more…
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