This is the final post of a nine-part series exploring conversations I’ve had with my cousin about racism. Ben and I are both white; I’m progressive and he’s conservative. We’re trying to listen to each other with respect, even as we try to change each other’s minds.
A year of transformation
It’s been a year since I started writing this series on racism, and I feel changed by the year. I know most of us have been changed by the past year.
When I first started the series, we were already in the midst of the pandemic. But there were still so many unknowns about it, and no vaccine. Meanwhile, Derek Chauvin had not yet been convicted of George Floyd’s murder, and Portland and other cities were embroiled in racial justice protests. Donald Trump was still president, with the election looming. The devastating Labor Day wildfires had not yet enveloped the West.
It’s amazing to think what we’ve all been through.
I feel tired. And gentler. The year of turmoil has softened me. Witnessing death and grief has softened me. Our polarized politics have exhausted me.
I take heart from the work of Braver Angels, The Compassionate Listening Project, and the many other organizations working to bridge our divides. And I take heart from my relationship with my cousin Ben, with whom I don’t get to talk as often as we’d both like, but who I admire and love despite our differences.
In our conversations, I feel eager to move past the question “Does systemic racism exist?” It seems clear to me that the answer is yes, although I know this is still unclear to him and many others. But I also feel certain that progressives aren’t always right about everything when it comes to racism, nor are we the only ones with good solutions to the problem. I strongly believe we need conservatives’ help on this. The more we can work together, the better our solutions will be and the more resilient our country will be.
There’s always more to continue exploring, and this series can’t possibly say it all. Since Ben and I are both white, our conversation is inherently limited, lacking the lived experiences and insights of people of color.
But I thought I’d end by highlighting examples of Americans from all sides of the political spectrum problem-solving creatively around racial justice. Here are just a few.
In health care…
Kaiser’s Dr. Pearl, quoted in a previous post, had noted that health outcomes differ across races, in part due to doctors’ racial biases. He writes that “Because the problem is multifaceted, the solutions must be, as well.” Kaiser is taking steps intended to reduce disparities, he reports. These include:
- Tracking health outcomes across races.
- Studying the techniques of physicians who succeed in reducing disparities.
- Providing culturally specific patient education.
In his Forbes article, Pearl writes:
The first step is recognizing these disparities exist and agreeing that it’s unacceptable for anyone to experience poorer health outcomes based solely on race, ethnicity, geography or income level.
In schools…
There are many ideas about how to address racial inequity in schools. School choice is one lauded by conservatives: if a student’s local school has little to offer, the student should be allowed to attend the better school across town. Another idea popular on the right is charter schools, which can specifically target minority communities. Both of these ideas are stringently opposed by public-sector school unions, which lean left and see them as anathema to ensuring public-school funding.
When I lived in Wisconsin, I once attended a meeting of the local Democratic Party to promote the political dialogue group I was co-leading. That evening, it happened that the Dems’ main agenda item was a resolution to condemn charter schools. This was a hot political topic at the time. Republicans had recently enacted statewide legislation aimed at busting public-sector unions, especially the state teacher’s union. Their rhetoric about charter schools was seen as a further threat.
I listened quietly as the Democrats prepared to vote on the resolution. First, there was a call for arguments for and against it. Many people raised their hands and spoke, and not a single one spoke against it. Everyone seemed passionately in favor of condemning charter schools, and listening them all speak, it was clear that the resolution would pass—probably unanimously.
But then, just before the vote was held, a new voice sounded from the back of the room.
We all swiveled in our seats to see the man who had piped up. He was a young Black community leader who’d been standing quietly in the back, and like me, he didn’t appear to be a regular attendee. Soon it became apparent that he’d come to the meeting because he’d heard this vote was to take place.
Walking slowly up the center aisle, he began to speak in a calm but serious tone. He spoke of a local charter school that targeted Black students who had fallen through the cracks. The school was popular in the Black community—lately, the Urban League had found themselves in an unusual alliance with Republicans on this issue.
“I’d just ask you, before you vote, to look around this room,” he said. “And think about the impact this vote might have—what message it would send—if you pass this resolution.”
We all looked around. It was obvious what he meant: of around fifty of us in the room, he appeared to be the only person of color.
The vote was held right after he spoke. The resolution failed. I could feel the change that had come over the crowd, which had gone from self-righteous to subdued. Before the young man left, I joined several others in standing to shake his hand.
The incident had a powerful impact on me. In the long term, I’d like all public schools to be well-funded and evenly funded. My ideal is a country in which all schools are public and free, and there’s no need for private or charter schools because all schools are equally excellent. I want there to be no cracks to fall through.
But I also respect the people of color who say that long-term solution is too far in the future. In the meantime, I’m willing to entertain ideas like school choice and charter schools—and I like that Republicans are working to solve this problem. We may not always agree on the best solutions, but the more we encourage a diversity of ideas, the better we’ll be able to fix broken systems.
In finance…
In terms of wealth inequality, the finance industry has lately been stepping up. Time will tell whether they keep their word, but in 2020, many big American banks pledged to increase lending to Black and brown communities.
Forbes reported in October last year that “JP Morgan Chase & Co, the nation’s biggest bank by assets…pledged $30 billion over the next five years in its latest efforts to solve the racial wealth gap.” The pledge includes initiating mortgages in minority communities, funding affordable housing, “mentoring thousands of Black students over the next decade, making homeownership more accessible and affordable, and supporting civil rights efforts.”
CEO Jamie Dimon put it this way:
Systemic racism is a tragic part of America’s history. We can do more and do better to break down systems that have propagated racism and widespread economic inequality, especially for Black and Latinx people. It’s long past time that society addresses racial inequities in a more tangible, meaningful way.
In criminal justice…
In terms of criminal justice, one solution I see getting traction from both ends of the political spectrum is increasing police accountability.
In this informative Twitter thread, activist and policy analyst Samuel Sinyangwe shows how a high proportion of police violence is committed by a small number of officers. These cops’ violence seems to be contagious—they influence other cops around them to become more violent. Sinyangwe advocates renegotiating police union contracts to hold the violent cops more accountable, ending practices like transferring them or purging their records to give them a clean slate.
And none other than Ben Shapiro, far-right conservative commentator and provocateur, endorses this same idea. In this interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Shapiro says, “Police union contracts need to be utterly redone across the country. Police union contracts right now protect a lot of bad cops.” He also advocates for a national registry of cops who’ve been disciplined.
I disagree with almost everything else Shapiro says in that interview—I always find him narrow-minded and prone to straw-man arguments that inaccurately represent the political left. But my distaste for his style is also why I find it heartening to see this overlap between his and Sinyangwe’s thinking. If people with disparate views support this idea, it has more chance of succeeding.
Hope, change, and gratitude
Maybe a year into our talks, I asked Ben whether his views on racism were changing at all. I knew that people’s minds change slowly & incrementally, but time had passed since we’d started talking, and I thought it was possible something had shifted in him.
He said he couldn’t help but absorb some antiracism thinking. It’s everywhere—in the news and social media, in movies and TV shows, even in his military base in the South. He said he’d grudgingly become open to antibias training, although he still grumbled about it and wasn’t sure it helped.
This made me smile. Conservatives are naturally averse to change—as William F. Buckley said, they like to “stand athwart history, yelling Stop.” But change does happen, even among conservatives, across years and generations.
Meanwhile, I’m being changed by Ben too. Some of my views have become more moderate, or at least far more nuanced. He’s made me see beyond my skepticism about many of his thoughts—I now understand that concepts like “personal responsibility” and the “divisiveness” of antiracism aren’t always dog whistles; they are substantive arguments that need to be examined. While I still feel passionate about antiracism, I’m convinced there’s a need for conservative perspectives on this issue.
There’s more middle ground here than many Americans realize. We tend to lapse into an “either/or” mentality, as though we have to choose between extremes, either agreeing that racism is pervasive and systems need reform or being proud of our country and believing in personal responsibility. But instead, we need a “both/and” mentality. We can do all these things: embrace the need for personal responsibility, strive to fix systems that are broken, celebrate our progress and ideals as a country, and acknowledge that we still have a ways to go.
The way forward is to work together and listen to each other. I feel so grateful for this ongoing conversation with Ben. As our country goes through a dark time, our loving relationship across party lines is bringing me grace and hope.
