Institutional racism, BLM, must be taught early, often

Civil rights, including the uplifting of the Black and Brown masses crammed into urban wastelands, has been a commitment of mine for 65 years. Growing up in a White privileged Chicago neighborhood, I was fortunate to be raised by parents, who tho not political, taught tolerance through example. I learned of institutional racism driving through those urban wastelands, which stimulated a thirst for understanding how and why they got there and means of uplifting them. The answers were not pretty or simple. School did virtually nothing to quench my thirst for knowledge. Neither did my friends who were either oblivious to the racial divide or parroted the casual racism of their parents.

Entering University of Chicago in 1963 was a watershed event in my racial education. I spent a decade in Hyde Park’s integrated community, experiencing diversity as the norm rather than the exception, and civil rights that were supported rather than ignored or dismissed. A stint as a Public Aid Department caseworker in Englewood allowed me to experience institutional racism up close and personal. This was the decade America finally shook off de jure segregation and begin the mainstreaming of Blacks into the entire fabric of America.

Half a century on, much of the optimism those of us practicing racial goodwill has been challenged. Enduring racial inequities are numerous and daunting. A significant portion of the White community has either little knowledge of institutional racism or are openly hostile to it. To some in my social network, none of whom espouse overt racism, there simply is no institutional racism. Everyone has the same shot at success they claim; and only those who don’t try don’t succeed. They cannot comprehend White privilege. They view relatively few and spontaneous criminal protest behavior as the entire sum and substance of Black Lives Matter. Try as I might to enlighten them, they appear a lost cause to the failure of our educational system to teach the true story of America’s racist founding and legacy.

Our educational system must redress this failure. It must start early and continue throughout the educational highway, from elementary school through high school and beyond. Many educators are on board. Tragically, the president is not. Just today at his ‘Conference on American history’, Trump said he’ll issue an executive order to create a “national commission to support patriotic education”. But his concept of ‘patriotic education’ specifically excludes any mention of institutional racism or White privilege. Trump calls both “hateful lies about this country. Our youth will be taught to love America with all of their heart and all their souls." He called teaching America’s racist history "toxic propaganda" and "a form of child abuse in the truest sense of those words". Those sentiments at first demoralize, then strengthen our resolve to seek progress.

The path of racial healing is far from a straight line upward. The legions of all races and ethnic groups, protesting for the end of institutional racism that keeps many millions shut out of America’s promise, are often met with profound ignorance as well as overt hostility. But when the highest elected official expresses both that ignorance and hostility, we’re in for a long, hard slog to the goal of racial justice and reconciliation.