Racism.

It is always there.

You like to think it is not.  But it is.

It is the snake in the weeds.

The Alligator in the swamp.

The tick near your campsite.

The Elephant in the room.

We at The Ascendant Project have talked around this issue.

We alluded to it.

We referenced Black Lives Matter.

I’ve mentioned stories my coworkers told me about episodes of racism they have suffered.

However, we have not addressed it directly.  We haven’t made an episode of it — and there are reasons for that.

First, Julius and I are just two white boys bitchin’.  Our viewpoint is from the racial class that has historically oppressed others.  As a result, our views are incomplete.  Our bias is found in that we may learn the facts, but we will never truly feel the pain. We will never feel the pain that is passed from generation to generation.  This is because we won the genetic lottery.  We run the risk of being “Latte Liberals” as Al Sharpton would say. Out of touch, with a splash of all talk and no action.

Second, The Ascendant Project wants conservatives to contribute.  This means they need to write and read essays, sign their full name to it, and be willing to be interviewed for an hour about life experiences and everything else that leads them to their position.  To do that in this political environment already is a risk and could be even more so in the future.  The reason why The Ascendant Project, Braver Angels, and other political organizations that try to “bridge the gap” have found is that Conservatives actually expect to be called a Racist at some point.

But here we are.  There is an issue that is an undercurrent in today’s political environment that people do not want to talk about.  Well, I demand courage from contributors.  Perhaps I should demand courage of myself to talk about this issue.

So what is racism?  Is it prejudice?  Is it systemic?  Is it based on the color of your skin?  Is it some of that, or all of that? What is the difference between race and ethnicity? Are Jews a race or a religion?

We survived as a species from our days as rodents by not trusting what was unfamiliar.  If something didn’t seem right, we avoided it.  This has been part of our instinct and our intuition since before homo sapiens came on the scene.  This is evolution. And as a result racism is natural.  But like a bite from a poisonous snake, natural does not always mean it is good for you.

However, humanity has grown past our biological evolution and created civilization.  We no longer are fighting over the local watering hole while looking over our shoulders for lions.  With sentient thought, the call to be a better person becomes the foundation for a better society. Still I am reminded of the argument between Angel and Spike from the TV series Angel, if a fight broke out between an Astronaut and a Caveman, who would win?

Racism has been prevalent in America since its founding.  From the slaughtering of Native Americans to the importation of slaves in the early 1600s, man has subjugated man on the basis of race.  The Declaration of Independence refers to Native Americans as Savages, and Africans were viewed as inferior by many of those in power since the dawn of colonialism.  Slaves were considered 3/5ths of a person in the Constitution.   When the Bill of Rights was ratified, every state was a Slave state. The first Free State was Vermont, and it had banned slavery before joining the Union as the 14th State.

Slaves built many of our government buildings including the White House and the Capitol.  Today, many golf courses and college campuses are built on plantations where people were held in chains, whipped, beaten, and killed — sometimes en masse — for disobeying their masters.  People were sold to other slave owners separating families in the name of the Plantation Owner’s dime or as a means of control.

Native Americans suffered from repeated ethnic cleansing from the US Army.  The Trail of Tears comes to mind. It didn’t matter if they won in court, Andrew Jackson and other Presidents would refuse to enforce the judgements. Treaties were consistently broken once gold or other precious resources were found on lands granted to them.

It should also be noted that throughout the 1800s, Immigrants from Catholic Countries were looked down upon.  Irish, Italians, and Germans amongst other countries all suffered discrimination when they came to the states.  Most of the history of Western Civilization up until WWII was Protestant countries vs Catholic countries.  This attitude of Europe was exported into America.  Other races, like Chinese Americans, suffered similar fates.

Once slavery was banished after the Civil War, Jim Crow settled in.  The South would vote solidly Democrat, because the pain of the war would cause many Southerners not to vote for a Republican for over a 100 years solely because it was the party of Lincoln.

Once the Civil Rights movements started gaining strength and popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, Republicans saw their chance.  They developed the Southern Strategy and Nixon and Goldwater would become household names as they preyed upon the hatred of Southern Racism during their campaigns.  With the Civil Rights Act that was passed under Johnson, the alliance of northern progressives with Dixiecrats was broken.  By the election of 1976, Dixiecrats would start the process of becoming Reagan-democrats, propelling Ronald Reagan to the Presidency in 1980. With the Republican revolution of 1994 the conversion of the South would be complete as the generational pain of Sherman’s March to the Sea would give way to the Contract with America.  The South has remained Republican ever since.  This isn’t to say that Racism is a Southern Problem. It is a problem everywhere.

Eventually some of these groups would be viewed as American.  With the election of JFK, religion as ethnicity didn’t matter as much as it did previously, but the concept of race still does.  Many African Americans to this day feel their lives do not matter as much as white people in the eyes of law enforcement and government policy, hence the name of the movement Black Lives Matter. The name is meant as reminder to those in power and to encourage African Americans when they look in the mirror.

Today, the most evident form of racism is directed at Hispanic populations. It should be noted though that most Hispanic immigrants do come from predominantly Catholic countries South of Texas, so perhaps there is an undercurrent of anti-Catholic sentiment as a component.  Every time President Trump brings up immigration enforcement he talks about how “they are sending us people from jails, and mental institutions”, but most people being picked up by ICE are people who go to work everyday and haven’t broken a law since crossing the border. They then are deported to third countries including to a prison in Sudan where rape and torture is common. During the 2024 campaign, the President mentioned how immigrants eat dogs.  Political rhetoric of taking “immigrants taking American Jobs” is prevalent.  The current Administration is making it harder to give immigrants due process in the courts, despite the Fifth Amendment stating No Person shall be deprived of life liberty or property without due process of the law.  The Fifth Amendment does not use the word citizen.

History is often viewed through a lens of triumphant progression.  MLK taught us to love each other. The first Black Supreme Court Justice (Thurgood Marshall) was appointed to the bench in 1967.  Jessie Jackson was the first African American to win delegates in his 1984 Presidential Campaign.  Employers and colleges started using DEI and quotas as tools to abolish the systemic racism of the past. And with the Election of Barack Obama in 2008, racism was declared dead by many.

But you can’t kill racism.  As mentioned at the start of this article, It is an evolutionary impulse. You have to decide to kill it in yourself and help those around you to fight it in their lives. Yes, sometimes that means calling them out. Primarily though, you need to look within. You have to learn to recognize those negative impulses and not always listen to your own first reactions.  Racism is a creeper like a snake in the grass that thrives in fields of homogeny.

When one lives and works in areas that have little diversity, it is easy for those evolutionary impulses to creep into your civilized brain.  Scapegoating becomes easier when minorities are not around to defend themselves or more importantly express they have lost respect for you.

When people get scared, it is easier to fall back into those evolutionary impulses. After 9/11, Muslim mosques and Sikh Temples were attacked in America. Being scared is an emotion. Courage is a decision.

The first way to fight racism in yourself is by embracing the concept of personal responsibility.  Make a habit of not blaming others for one’s own hardships. 

Another way is to fight homogeny. Homogeny is basically segregation by the free market.  It is found in our neighborhoods, our churches, our schools and many occupations have a pretty homogeneous demographic make up.  Racism thrives in these environments because it is so easy for one’s guard to fall.  It is important to have a diverse group of friends and mentors throughout your life.  As for me, I do have one African American mentor who is a colleague.  Also in my profession, there are a couple other people of color who I talk to on a regular basis. But for the most part, yes, most of my friends are white. But I long for a more diverse life experience.

Finally, learn to empathize with those of which you do not have a common life experience.  Embracing and understanding your own ignorance is the first step in being curious.   Develop an empathetic world view.  If you are looking to understand people, you will be slower to judge them. Make your starting point, “They are people like me”.

One of my personal heroes is Daryl Davis. He is an African American musician who has collected 200 KKK robes. He has done this by befriending them. Through love he brought people out of hate. He helped racists become better people. We need to follow his example and love all of humanity. For those who call themselves Christians out there, remember John 3:16. If God loved the world so much that he gave His only Son, it is your calling to follow His example. Love one Another. And love isn’t just a feeling. Like courage, it is also a decision.

I wish I could bring this article to an easy conclusion.  This article is already 1300 words over the target of 750, so the concepts of “what is race”, “race relations”, “racial reconciliation”, “generational wealth”, “privilege”, “What is DEI”, “How racism is passed down through generations”, and other topics will have to be addressed elsewhere. This article did not go into the history of lynchings, race riots like Tulsa, Rodney King, or the riots when Martin Luther King jr was assassinated. It may be easier to talk about racism in other parts of the world to make it less personal. I could see essays on the Rwandan Genocide and “Is the Israeli-Palestinian relationship apartheid?”. Perhaps these will be done in future essays and interviews. But perhaps that is chickening out of a hard conversation.

But really, what do I really know about racism? Not much. I may learn the history, I may do the research, I may listen to my friends and colleagues of color, but I will never feel the pain. In the end, I’m just a white boy bitchin’. And this podcast is in desperate need of more contributors. 

Brian Smyers

Biography.

My articles

Corrections, Clarifications, and Addendums:

General note: Homogeny is normally used to describe either coming from the same descendant (biology) or a homogeneous area. I used it to describe segregation caused by the free market.

[33:00] The study about credit ratings that I was thinking of was discussed in the Wall Street Journal. However, I misstated it. It actually shows how the areas you grew up affect your habits later on down the road leading to differing credit ratings.

[34:42] Daryl Davis

[1:02:50] Movies mentioned: American History X and Cry Freedom

[`1:09:00] It was Kelly Anne Conway who first mentioned “Alternative Facts” on Meet the Press

[1:27:30] Julius tries to reference “Don’t Push Me“

[1:29:00 and article] Angel and Spike argue about Astronauts and Cavemen

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