Systemic anything is only a conspiracy theory.

Oh, I'm probably going to regret this post, because I know how it's going to play out. It'll end up with nobody listening to anybody. My 'side' will say flip, yours will say flop, and it will end up a pointless quagmire. Why bother?

But, hell, there is that part of me which asks why not try? We really do need to have open, honest, and non-hostile conversations about uncomfortable questions. So, here goes, despite my knowing that I will be seen as part of the problem at least by some of my friends and family.

You assert there is systemic racism. I do not think there is. Oh, there's racism, absolutely. But it is endemic, a sad reflection of our human condition. It happens because people at times follow their fallen, imperfect natures, saying and doing bad things for irrational, evil reasons. We have racism for the same reason we have thievery, libel, and murder. Imperfect people will do imperfect things. It's simply how the world is.

This does not and cannot mean we should not do something about human ill will. Where racism exists we must root out and punish it, just as we should with all evils. Part of that however does not mean making more of an individual evil than it is. Labeling racism systemic does exactly that.

To use what I think is an easy example (though it will denied such) let's look at the recent Kenosha situation. What happened to Jacob Blake, if it was racially motivated at all, could not have been systemic. The police went after him because there were outstanding warrants for him. The warrants were issued by courts based on the testimony of citizens about the accused. And then he resisted arrest. So for the incident to be an example of systemic racism, the citizens, the courts, and the cops would all have had to have been in on the conspiracy, and Blake's own resistance would have to have been a non-factor. I just don't buy it. 

To be sure, it is within the realm of possibility that he was shot because he was black. Yet that decision would have had to be made terribly fast, and under the circumstances, his continuing to resist even after not one but two taser attempts failed, I think it highly doubtful the cop thought about shooting him simply because he was black. He may have panicked into overreacting, perhaps. Even then, it would be the officer who shot at fault, not the system. 

Justice is primarily individual, A did something wrong to B, and typically no more than that. It follows then that justice would be better served when approached that way. Wanting more than that out of it is dangerously divisive, and unjust in its own right.