A lot has been in the news about “institutionalized racism.” The fact is, I believe there is institutional racism, but it isn’t where the left would like you to believe.
I was discussing the heightened state of racial animosity during the “post-racial” presidency of Obama with a liberal friend, also originally from St. Louis. I asked her whether she would call St. Louis a racist city. She immediately got really animated and started relating a story. Her blind spot shocked me.
She had traveled back to St. Louis and dropped into see some old co-workers, several of whom are black. One black friend requested a ride home to North St. Louis City, a place infamous for crime, drugs and prostitutes. Being a “non-judgmental liberal,” she headed there with confidence.
She was invited into a house to “smoke some weed.” She was the only white person there, and she said she almost immediately felt the hostility. Finally, she explained, one guy came right out and called her a “cracker,” explaining that she had no business being in “their” neighborhood. She was shocked and left.
I asked whether she thought blacks were just naturally racist or if she thought something had to drive that hate. I wanted to expose what I see as truly racist entities in universities and elsewhere, but she didn’t want to talk about where the racism came from. She kept interrupting me, wanting to tell me why a $15 minimum wage is a good idea and how many employers exploit their workers. It was clear that she did not want to hear a truth that might confuse her. Ironically, my liberal friend seemed to want to hold her racist view that blacks just hate white people because it is somehow their nature to blame white people for the past.
