Racism in America

Cornel West has addressed one of the most vexing issues in contemporary America in his insightful piece. We agree with him that the country needs a new level of discourse about “race,” and that “racism in America is first and foremost a species of economic inequality.” However, we were dismayed by your newspaper’s suggestion that “race” is the issue confronting black Americans. Your report correlated a list of facts with blacks: their income, education, attitudes, housing, infant deaths, etc., as if “race” had explanatory value! We suggest that it is racism that contributes to the facts explicated by your report. We have no analytical use for the notion of “race” and we use it only in a descriptive capacity. Part of our concern has been to ensure a distinction between the idea of “race” and the concept of “racism.”

We cannot subvert the continuing practice of racism to “cultural differences.” And we should not fall into the analytical trap by the continuous use of the notion of “race” as an analytical category in social policy discourse. Thus, we maintain that it is material inequality that is the determinant of their condition, not their “race.” Therefore, we think that your special report should have been more aptly titled “Racism and Black America.”

SWAN C.S. NGIN, Lecturer

Department of Asian and Asian American Studies

RUDY TORRES, Associate Professor

Public Policy and Chicano Studies

Cal State Long Beach