Dear Mike Pence, Systemic Racism Is Real

Mike Pence recently described systemic racism as a “left-wing” myth during a speech in New Hampshire.

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Republicans have continued to peddle the myth that systemic racism is not real. They claim that America is not a racist country. The problem with this argument is that they fail to understand what systemic means. Systemic stands for something that is fundamental to a predominant social, economic, or practical practice. The keyword here is fundamental. Systemic racism is the foundation that the United States is built upon. Without it, the country would crumble. Put another way, without systemic racism, America would not exist as it currently does.

There is a multitude of ways in which systemic racism is real. For example, Blacks have a lower life expectancy than Whites. In some Chicago neighborhoods, there is a 30-year gap in life expectancies between the two groups. Systemic racism persists in all of our environments. It exists in schools, jobs, police departments, neighborhoods, governments, etc… Why? When White people dominate positions of power, people of color have a hard time getting ahead. How dominant are White people in positions of power? Since 1955, when Fortune started to list the 500 largest companies in America, only 19 have been Black. 19 Black CEOs in the past 66…