In his book,, "Condemnation of Blackness; Race, Crime and the making of modern Urban America", Harvard professor Khalil Muhammad traces the roots of American racism to the decades after the Civil War. He starts his case by noting slavery was abolished in the US, except as punishment for crime. Southern politicians used this gigantic loophole to criminalize virtually everything black people did, unless it was submitting to white landowners to become sharecroppers.
When blacks began their great migration to the North during and after WW1, northern politicians and police pointed to the bloated southern crime statistics as evidence blacks were prone to crime and made it a self fulfilling prophecy. According to Muhammad, this is the root of white policing of black neighborhoods and the social distress it causes black society.
What Muhammad doesn't say is that somewhere between 15-20% of the white population is racist. Now, it may be that much of that animosity is driven by the history which has caused the social disparities he notes. However, even in the absence of historical oppression and the hatred it has engendered, I believe that fear of the "other" is a powerful component of racism and is intractable in the short term.
Black activists are seizing this moment in our history to demand equal treatment of all races under the law. Many whites of good will are offering to meet them and take their demands seriously. Unfortunately, the president* is a stone cold racist and has surrounded himself with like minded people, so little can be done before November. After the election, Joe Biden will have an historical opportunity to begin to repair the damage done by slavery and its aftermath. Let's hope he is up to the job.
* Note.. Much of this post was derived from an interview by Journalist Anna North on the Vox website. The opinions expressed were my own.
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