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submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Journalists Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, authors of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “His Name Is George Floyd,” are still unclear why they were told they couldn’t read from their book or talk about systemic racism to a room full of high school students in Memphis.

Two days before an event at Whitehaven High School, they said they were “blindsided” by the last-minute restrictions, which they believed event organizers issued in accordance with Tennessee laws restricting certain books in schools. They said they’d also been told the week before the appearance that their book wouldn’t be distributed at the event.

One thing is for certain, the authors said: The students paid the price ultimately.

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[-] Seasoned_Greetings@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think the subject of the post begs the question a little. It's hardly intellectually honest to insinuate that institutional racism doesn't exist in broad form because the guy who formalized it fudged the numbers.

It speaks plenty that conservatives won't allow institutions that they control to even talk about it. If those numbers are so radically false, why stifle the conversation? Especially when the data would then benefit conservative counterpoints.

The truth can be seen in raw data from other sources, like the prison population of the state I live in for instance. How come in Louisiana, black people make up a third of the population but two thirds of the prison population?

Are you going to argue that there's not enough data to draw the conclusion that black people are incarcerated at a higher rate? The numbers are right there. Are you going to try to justify the (racist) idea that black people just do more crimes? Maybe it's just that people stuck in lower socioeconomic positions resort to crime more often. So is it that black people tend to not have the same resources other people do to lift themselves up? Possibly due to a generational pattern of poverty?

Or maybe it's that the police here know that people of a certain color won't be able to afford to fight back as often. Or that the judges in this shit hole state are ancient racists (with the exception of a couple I know) and don't believe black people can reform.

That doesn't sound like institutionalized racism to you?

That reasoning exists independent of the guy who formalized it. It's pretty asinine to deny the existence of something because of flaws in the way it was studied, regardless of the intent of the person who wrote the paper.

this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023
416 points (98.1% liked)

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