The recipe for ongoing institutional racism in this country begins with a healthy dose of Levi Hilton’s commentary “A dangerous fallacy facing my generation” published in The Salt Lake Tribune Aug. 14.
He states that a Black man is 2.6 times more likely to be shot by a police officer than a white man. Yet Black men only comprise 7% of the population. He closes with “Black Americans are responsible for 36% of violent crime and 51% of homicides.”
His inference is: Black people are shot more because they are more likely to be engaging in nefarious activities and therefore the 2.6 times greater rate of being shot by police is (shrug your shoulders here and say “eh”) reasonable.
He states that children raised in fatherless households are four times more likely to live in poverty and that “70% of Black children are raised in fatherless homes, versus 25% of white children.” He then asks “what other factors beyond single parenting could be involved?”
The inference is that somehow Black families are making bad choices, as if to say, “It’s not our problem. They made their bed, they can lie in it.”
And he foresaw the criticism his piece would generate by adding the disclaimer, “I am not saying that racism does not exist.” What he has done, however, is dismiss institutional racism as an explanation for his observations.
He holds the belief that Black Americans are where they are today because of individual choice rather than a system of oppression which has been woven into the fabric of our American lives. He is validating racist tenets rather than contributing to the deeper understanding of the complex factors which result in his observations.
Mr. Hilton, are you suggesting that Black people are hard-wired for violent crime? Are you suggesting Black fathers are not as good as white fathers? It is a statistical fact that there are proportionally more single-parent Black families than single-parent white families, but you attribute this statistic to Black people themselves. You are making a moral and cultural judgement.
Could it be that institutional racism has pushed Black individuals and families into the lowest socioeconomic strata, creating the hardships which result in the inevitable observations you cite? How has the intersection of race, economics, politics and other institutional forces colluded to place Black Americans in this untenable position?
Ask yourself why a white family has on average 10 times the net worth of a black family. Ask yourself why Black Americans are more likely to be involved in traffic stops. Why does our judicial system charge, convict and sentence to death Black Americans at a higher rate than white Americans? Why does the coronavirus disproportionately affect those of color?
Why are there only three black NFL head coaches when 70% of the players are black? Why did the U.S. government pay nearly one billion dollars to over 13,000 black farmers to settle the largest civil rights class action lawsuit to date (Pigford vs Glickman)? Why are nearly 85% of orthopedic surgeons Caucasian (2018 AAOS survey)?
We are not born racist. It is a learned behavior. Humans are naturally hard-wired to codify and group people and things. This is how we understand and navigate the world.
Four hundred years ago, one group of humans with white skin captured a group of humans with black skin, brought them to America against their will and denigrated their race to justify enslavement. These Black people were treated as property, separated from their families and placed in subservient roles. Those who protested were beaten and may have been labeled “violent.” Institutional racism is rooted in this learned prejudice passed from generation to generation by those who are in the position of power.
Thomas Edison once said: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
I see opportunity here. Reject your position of comfort, and ask the next question. Be a critical thinker.
Let us all strive to identify and correct elements of structural racism present in our society.
Brent Baranko, M.D.
Brent Baranko, M.D., Salt Lake City Utah, is a privileged Caucasian orthopedic surgeon practicing at the Ogden Clinic. He has been a resident of Utah since 1998.