The overt racist, secretly recorded, remarks of the owner of the NBA LA Clippers basketball team is big news and lead today to his lifetime ban from basketball and efforts are underway to force this owner of the team since the early 1980’s to sell it. Everyone, players, fans, black and white applauded the NBA commission banning of this owner for some remarks he made to his former girlfriend awhile back.

I wish we could get a little bit of the outrage expressed on this over racist remarks over the institutional racism that marks this city and many others in the country. Where is the outrage when government, businesses, churches and even Catholic organization like St. Vincent de Paul make decisions that reaffirm the North Central neighborhood being the most segregated area in the most segregated city in the USA, the poorest area in the fourth poorest city, the area with the highest unemployment rate, the most criminalized area as well with the deprived public education system. (See M.A.P.S.)

Institutional racism does more harm to more people than any overt racist remarks from an old white guy. Yet this type of racism goes on and on while we wait for the next old white guy to make a racist remark.

In the 60’s when we protesting against “institutional racism” at the university students and faculty seemed to understand what we meant. If we talk about it today or ‘institutional militarism’ at Marquette University no one seems to care.
When racism or any ‘ism’ is overt it gets attention; when it is subtle and more destructive it gets ignored. Our society has been conditioned to care about the overt and superficial but not about the subtle and deep seated. Personally I will take the overt racism over institutional racism any day.

When racism or any ‘ism’ is overt it gets attention; when it is subtle and more destructive it gets ignored. Our society has been conditioned to care about the overt and superficial but not about the subtle and deep seated. Personally I will take overt racism over institutional racism any day.

Comments

Please send any comments on this post to . Let us know which day’s post your comments pertain to. If the comments are appropriate we will post them here for you.