The Farthest Reaches of American Racism

Leader Joseph Chuman

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With the coming of Barack Obama, and even several years before, we had reason to believe that at long last America was beginning to put its abominable legacy of racism behind us. After all, such values as “tolerance” and “multiculturalism” were coursing through large segments of American society. But the recent spate of killings of young black men killed by white police officer with impunity, has dramatically  revealed that such optimism was premature. So has increased exposure of the astounding rates of incarceration of black men, and much else. How are we to explain the sheer persistence and endurance of racism that continues to deeply permeate our society?

To try to answer this question, I plan to look at the thought of several major African-American figures in order to frame an understanding of this old but urgent problem that tragically continues to plague American society and undermine our  humanistic ideals and aspirations.