Recently you may have started to hear the phrase “systemic racism” a lot. It’s been in the news and in the conversations that people are having.
My goal here is not to persuade you to any political position, but just to explain a word so that you can understand what people are really talking about.
What does “system” mean?
The dictionary says that systemic means “relating to a system, especially as opposed to a particular part.” But like many dictionary definitions, that one seems circular. Why does the definition use the word ‘system,’ which is part of the word systemic?
You probably know that a system is a set of related things. Our bodies have systems, like the digestive system. Our society has systems, like the financial system. Systems are generally seen as a connected group of things—a change to one part of the system can affect the system as a whole.
So what does “systemic” mean?
In medicine, something is “systemic” when it affects everything in a system. For example, a bruise on your knee is just a bruise. That’s an isolated problem. But if your whole body bruises too easily, you have a systemic problem.
Systemic often means that an issue has woven its way into a whole system, and you can’t isolate the issue in one place. Global climate change is another example of a systemic issue. It wasn’t created by and can’t be solved by one single thing we do to the environment.
Systemic is not systematic
Systemic does not mean systematic, which means that a system is created and performed intentionally.
What is race and racism?
Biologists say that “race” doesn’t exist as a scientific concept. We are all more alike than we are different, and many of the things we refer to regarding race, such as skin color, are minor and variable differences.
So “race” as we use it is a sociological term—it’s a way we describe groups of people that we define by how they look, where their ancestors came from, and perhaps the culture they now have.
Racism means believing that people identified as a specific race have corresponding qualities. For example, it is racist to believe that a particular person you meet is more or less intelligent based on the color of their skin, since a person’s intelligence has nothing to do with their skin color.
Furthermore, most people define racism as not just noticing and believing in racial differences, but acting in a negative way based on beliefs about race.
What happens when you combine ‘systemic’ and ‘racism’?
Notice that I described racism in terms of what a single person thinks. But we learned that systemic isn’t about a single piece of a system but rather the whole system.
So when you put ‘systemic’ in front of ‘racism,’ you remove the single people from the racism and describe, instead, a system.
Confused?
Let’s look at bruises again:
- Every person gets bruises. It’s very typical to get a bruise on your knee when you fall down.
- Someone who has a systemic medical problem that causes easy bruising gets bruises all over, much more easily.
- Someone who has a systemic medical problem that causes easy bruising does not need to do anything out of the ordinary to get bruises.
- Even though someone might have that systemic medical problem, every spot on their body won’t necessarily be bruised.
Let’s translate that to systemic racism:
- Every person is capable of racism. Some of us are brought up not to have racist ideas and some of us are exposed to racist ideas that influence us.
Just like a bruise on your knee, a single racist person doesn’t mean there is a systemic problem. - When a society has a problem with systemic racism, that means that racist things happen all over, within the system of that society, and no one person is in control.
Like with systemic bruising, systemic racism can’t be stopped by individual people not being racist. - When a society has a problem with systemic racism, that doesn’t mean that every person in the society is trying to act in racist ways.
Just like with systemic bruising, it’s not necessary for everyone to be racist when there is systemic racism. - So even when a society suffers from systemic racism, not every person in that society will be personally racist or act in racist ways.
Systemic bruising doesn’t necessarily cause bruises everywhere, just like living in a system infused with racism doesn’t mean that a person is personally racist.
Systemic racism doesn’t mean everyone is racist
This is the most important thing to understand about this phrase:
Individual people within a system that has built-in racism do not have to be racist themselves. In fact, each individual person in a society could intend every single day not to act in a racist way, but still take part in a racist system.
What systemic racism isn’t
- Systemic racism does not mean individual people are racist
- Systemic racism does not mean individual people know they are taking part in a racist system
- Systemic racism does not mean that a group of people is necessarily intending to be racist
What systemic racism is
- If a financial system is set up in a way that benefits or excludes people of one race, that’s systemic racism
- If a healthcare system is set up in a way that benefits or excludes people of one race, that’s systemic racism
- If a political system is set up in a way that benefits or excludes people of one race, that’s systemic racism
Does systemic racism exist in the United States? Do we need new laws?
That’s where we get into politics. But now that you know the definition, you can apply it to what you know and learn, and notice when others misunderstand the meaning of the word.