My "Woke" Niece Thinks I am a Racist

 My "Woke" Niece Thinks I am a Racist

 

Why?

When I saw the video of the Minneapolis police building burning during the initial George Floyd riots, I asked her “How she could support such violent protesting.”   

My woke niece called me a racist and defended it as a reasonable reaction to the systemic racism that blacks experience today as evidenced by Floyd’s death and that police shootings were the leading cause of young black male deaths. 

I looked into the CDC data for cause of death and learned that the leading cause of young (10-29y) male black deaths was actually non-police homicides, almost always by other blacks, and that police shootings, whether justified or not, was only 2%.

My “woke” niece called me a racist.

She then claimed that police were racist because they shoot blacks 3xs more than whites.  I looked into the FBI crime data and the Washington Post’s police shooting data and found that blacks committed 6.9x’s more homicides and 3.6x’s more violent crimes and explained that this data might explain that police aren’t racist but actually shooting blacks at a lower ratio when you take into account the crime rates.

She said she doesn’t care what the data says and my “woke” niece called me a racist. 

I then shared a research paper from Roland Fryer PhD (a well-respected black Harvard economics professor) that was able collect unique data from police departments, where, to his admitted surprise, he found that police shot blacks disproportionately less than whites when violent crime rates are taken into account.  He did find that police used “force” slightly more, but qualified that he didn’t have any data related to behaviors and attitudes to determine whether this was a racial behavior. 

My “woke” niece called me a racist and then said that blacks were unfairly pulled over by police. 

I found the Stanford data (Stanford Open Policing Project) that shows that blacks were indeed pulled over disproportionately.  However, the data also showed that the percent of time police found something of concern was the same for blacks and whites, evidence that the stops aren’t racial but are justified (at least as much as white stops.)

My “woke” niece called me a racist and then said to look at the incarceration rate where blacks are disproportionately incarcerated. 

I then showed her data that showed that black immigrants are incarcerated at the same rate as whites regardless of income or education level whereas black Americans are incarcerated at much higher rates and then I asked her how systemic racism differentiates between black immigrants and black Americans. 

My “woke” niece called me a racist and said look at mortgage rates where data shows that blacks pay more than whites on average.  

I looked at the studies and data regarding mortgage rates and found that on average blacks do pay more than whites. Yet those same studies pointed out that they had no data on the credit worthiness of the two different groups including key factors that would determine credit worthiness such as FICA scores and therefore could not conclude anything about race. 

My “woke” niece called me a racist and told me to read White Fragility. 

I then reviewed Coates, Kendi, and DiAngelo and Critical Race Theory(CRT) and how this narrative pointed out all of the disparities between blacks and whites (wealth, income, incarceration, crime, police shootings, etc) and concludes it can only be systemic racism.

I brought up the great differences in teen births and fatherless homes and questioned the culture and behaviors in certain communities.

My “woke” niece called me racist. 

She claimed this country was founded as a white supremacy racist country (Project 1619.) 

Project 1619 is a New York Times’ narrative that America was founded to preserve slavery that is being widely promoted and being encouraged as part of schools' history curriculum. I’ve enjoyed learning about the founding of this country, the constitution, its ratification, and the founding fathers.  Project 1619, to me, was a false narrative. This country was founded in 1776/1787 with a necessary compromise between the north and the south. A compromise that tore this country apart as time went on through the Civil War to finally end slavery.  The false narrative of Project 1619 has now been  widely criticized by historians and that the NYT has been quietly removing many of the outlandish claims.

I shared this.

My “woke” niece called me a racist and said we should defund the police.

I looked at interactions with police and showed that the data did not support that police were racists  in arrests, use of force or shooting when crime rates were taken into account and shared that what I hear from many inner city voices was that while they may want police reform, there is little interest in reducing police presence.   

My “woke” niece called me a racist. 

I shared thoughtful studies and pieces by well-respected black scholars (Sowell, Steele, Loury, Hughes, etc), successful black businessmen/leaders (Riley, Carson, Payne, etc) and, yes, Candace Owens.  All of these black conservatives, in a deeper, more thorough, and more in depth way than I could ever hope, have disputed systemic racism as the primary cause for the disparities, highlighted that this propagated false narrative cannot even define systemic racism in any meaningful way, point out how CRT essentially takes away agency (individual responsibility and capability) from blacks, encourages a victim mentality, lowers the expectations for personal responsibility and accountability and is, in fact, hurting blacks and this country.

They also point out that there is no excuse for black behaviors when you look at violent crime data.  Blacks commit 30% more crimes against whites than their population proportion, 483% more crimes against black than their proportion, whereas whites commit only 1/6 of the crimes against blacks than their proportion.

My “woke” niece called me a racist and said she wasn’t going to waste any time reading anything from conservatives. 

So.  My “woke” niece thinks I am a racist.

1. I think this false narrative is tearing this country apart. 
2. I think Critical Race Theory is hurting blacks.
3. I think woke liberals use the word racist to try to scare/intimidate anyone who doesn’t want to support whatever the woke liberals want.
4. I think willful ignorance stifles discourse and I sleep well every night

[NOTE1 – Obviously, systemic racism was widely pervasive in the early years of our country and even in recent history with Jim Crow laws and redlining, etc.  However, I think systemic racism TODAY is hard to find, though I welcome any data that supports such claims.]

[NOTE2 – I am sure some racism exists today, any racism is bad and we should continue to work to reduce it,  but I think it is only a minor factor today in anyone’s ability to succeed and in fact there are clear advantages to being black for getting into college, getting a corporate job or promotion.]

[NOTE3 – I am sure some excess police force is used today, excess police force is bad and we should continue to try to reduce it but, excess police force is not a major factor in anyone’s ability to succeed.]

Below are two sources that are relatively easy to digest that may be of interest.

WhyDoes Racial Inequality Exist? – Glen Loury

ColemanHughes and Glenn Loury on Race in America, Patriotism, and College Campuses