The New Racism Is Polite Racism
The explicit old evils still exist, but so does a sophisticated new version, cloaked in false kindness that’s anything but
The American racist has certainly evolved. Not via their own volition. This growth is the offspring of racism’s primary modes. Its original brand was brutal, psychopathic, deadly, Christian. A couple hundred years later, systemic racism bloomed. It was nuanced, insidious, also deadly. It repeatedly lynched, but kept your heart beating so that you saw another day and invisible noose. Systemic racism didn’t replace the original recipe, it expanded the menu. Today, the unsophisticated original and its predecessor are as alive and unwell as ever, in plain sight from California prisons to Bushwick real estate. Together they’ve procreated a less visible heir; one that’s continued the family’s predatorial business with a more polished, less obtrusive manifestation. This evolution in racism is both systemic and overt. It is polite.
What makes polite racism such a potent evil is its neutralization of black and brown fear. Similar to the close-range fighting style of Jujutsu, polite racism attacks its brown target by first leaning into their conditioned trauma. The lead hand or jab is verbal, at times articulate, often from the mouths of politicians. It parcels messaging…
