Racism in America - What Are We Doing Wrong

As a good progressive white American, I have just read the two "must read" books on racism; How to Be an AntiRacist by Ibram X. Kendi and White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin J. DiAngelo and Michael Eric Dyson. Now I am even more confused than ever. I was hoping that some highly-educated African-American people could come up a checklist of what white people needed to do to solve the problem of racism in America and make black people less angry. Boy was I wrong.

My two take-aways from these books are 1- that it is up to white people to figure out and solve the problem and that it is up to black people to tell white people when the problem is solved and 2- the solution involves something called equity among all people. This doesn't bring us any closer to the solution than we were in 1492, 1868 or 1964. It merely shows that if these authors are to be believed, the problem is essentially unsolvable short of ending Western Civilization.

So... where does that leave us? How about Ricky Nelson that great American philospher...But it's all right now, I learned my lesson well. You see, ya can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself For me, pleasing myself on this issue goes back to where we started after George Floyd was killed two months ago... The only issue that is fixable came to the surface instantly --- Black Lives Matter. If we can work together we can get Americans to accept that Black Lives Matter then we can work toward being sure that Black Lives (Really Do) Matter. If we can do this, we have improved ths situation. That would be a good thing.