Institutional Racism
20 Sep 2024The problem of institutional racism is actually two problems: the problem of racism, and the problem of institutions.
If we did not have institutions with punitive powers, could racism be that big a problem?
As long as the majority of people did not support obvious racism (they don’t) then the racists couldn’t do very much.
Imagine Hitler being born into a society in pre-colonial North America. He clearly has a charismatic personality, he migh even become a chief.
Then he starts talking about how the people in his tribe are a superior race and must kill all the members of some other tribe that doesn’t look like them.
No one listens to him. “You’re crazy chief” they say, as they chuckle and pat him on the back.
In certain societies of pre-colonial North America if someone was convicted of murder the “sentence” was to implore the murderer and their family to pay reparations to the victim’s family, in order to stay an act of vengeance. At no point did the murderer face punishment (aside from the moral punishment that comes with having a conscience) or the loss of personal autonomy.
And it worked. Even Thomas Jefferson thought so:
I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the European governments. Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, and restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the latter, under pretense of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves & sheep. I do not exaggerate.