When it comes to systemic injustice, we must deconstruct, defund, demolish, dismantle now and with courage. But when it comes to people? We can’t destroy the wheat for the weeds before the harvest.
But while that history helps to explain how our racial hierarchy arose, it doesn’t explain why it endures well into the 21st century—much less why we’re not trying very hard to get rid of it.
This project, perfectly encapsulated in the building of a statue, has served to effectively shield white Americans from feelings of guilt or thoughts of reparation—but it has left us woefully unable or unwilling to fix systemically racist systems.
Well-meaning Christians will read books and issue public statements against racism without doing much to dismantle the system that allows the violence and discrimination to exist in the first place