Must call out errors
The opinion piece by Bradley Gitz, "Our racial descent," deserves examination. It is riddled with mischaracterizations, factual errors, and logical errors that must be called out.
"Systemic racism" refers to the policies and practices within institutions in society that result in documented, measurable racial disparities: health care, education, wealth, employment, management, pollution exposure, voting, criminal justice, etc. While much progress has been made since the days of human enslavement, today's quantifiable disparities prove that either something is built into these institutions that continues to favor white folks, or white folks are naturally rising to the top. (If you think it is the latter, as Gitz does, you have some soul-searching to do.)
How was systemic racism built? Law, policies, and court decisions layered on roadblocks for centuries. It is easy to connect the dots between the GI Bill, initial Social Security conditions, redlining, and POA restrictions of the 20th century to today's disparities in generational wealth, homeownership, and overcrowded inner cities. How about the caveat of the 13th Amendment that led to Black Codes, for-profit prisons, and today's incarceration rates? Laws defined who was "white" and drove a wedge between those who qualified and everyone else.
Acts of overt racism are getting reported because we all have video cameras in our pockets at all times now. Things that for centuries could be swept under the rug are now available for a worldwide audience to see. What Gitz calls an "obsession with race" is merely a new awareness of the prevalence of racial disparities and individual acts of cruelty. This awareness should lead to empathy and change if we follow the ideals of our Constitution, the teachings of Christ, or basic human decency. The magnitude of the task is no excuse to not chip away at it.
DEBBIE HALBERT
North Little Rock
Not what is meant
Note to our state elected officials: In the King James Bible, Jesus says, "Suffer the little children to come to me"; he did not mean "make 'em hurt." When written in 1611, the definition of suffer in this context was to allow or to tolerate, an invitation to the kingdom of heaven, not to establish a cheap child labor force.
Oliver Twist said, "Please sir, I want some more." He was hungry, begging for food, not for a night shift.
CHARLES FEILD
Little Rock