Michael Gerson's surprising observation on systemic racism in the US

Michael Gerson can be an annoying self-righteous conservative. But his op-ed I’m a conservative who believes systemic racism is real (Washington Post 06/21/2021) is actually decent. No bold new insights. But decent in a way that at least a few Republican conservatives may find accessible.

I mean, it's Michael Gerson, so he takes a dumb shot at Tom Paine (?!) in the piece.

But it is (mostly) a decent piece:

I don’t think it’s possible to be a conservative without believing that racism is, in part, structural.

Most on the American right have dug into a very different position. They tend to view racism as an individual act of immorality. And they regard the progressive imputation of racism to be an attack on their character. In a free society, they reason, the responsibility for success and failure is largely personal. They’re proud of the productive life choices they’ve made and refuse to feel guilty for self-destructive life choices made by others. It’s an argument that sounds convincing — until it’s tested against the experience of our own lives. [my emphasis]

This is a core posture of conservatives, and is also part of the neoliberal worldview that gained dominance in the US in the 1980s. Here's Maggie Thatcher's classic description of the neoliberal outlook (Margaret Thatcher: a life in quotes Guardian 04/08/2013):

They are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours. (1987) [my emphasis]

Ivan Natividad gives some more background and additional references (How American racism is rooted in residential segregation Berkeley News 06/21/2021): He quotes Stephen Menendian, director of a UC-Berkeley institute that focuses on such issues:

While 20th century segregation was also residential — Black urban areas versus white suburban areas — in the 21st century we’re seeing segregation as more regional today. We’re also seeing white suburbs and Black suburbs.

A city like Ferguson, Missouri, in 1970 was 90% white. But by 2010, it’s 66% Black. Segregation now is more mobile and more regional than it was in the 20th century. It’s much more multiracial. It’s not binary. And it’s about the community you live in, not the neighborhood within the city you live in.

What hasn’t changed is that these segregated communities of color are still poorly resourced. White communities have these high pockets of private wealth and resources, while non-white areas have very anemic low levels of wealth where residents are extremely underpaid, under-resourced, and have disinvested public goods and infrastructure. ...

When you think about disproportional use of police brutality, or COVID-19 health outcomes and unemployment in communities of color, society often labels these disparities as racism in these individual institutions. But all these outcomes are really connected to residential segregation. This is what makes it systemic and not institutional racism. [my emphasis]