Flemming: A rebuttal to Rep. Colston’s ‘structural racism’ devotional diatribe

By David Flemming

On Feb. 16, Rep. Hal Colston, D-Winooski, gave the daily devotional on the virtual floor of the Vermont House. Afterward, Rep. Scott Beck, R-St. Johnsbury, took the unusual action of requesting that it be put in the House journal. The devotional is a diatribe of all things Colston considers racist.

Colston declares, “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, ‘We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.’ One way this garment manifests itself for me is through structural racism. Structural racism is the normalization of for many dynamics that are historical, cultural, institutional and interpersonal and routinely advantages White people while producing chronic, adverse outcomes for people of color. All of us are wounded by this system. All of us are oppressed by this system. All of us lose part of our humanity because of this system. When our country honestly looks into the mirror, this is beyond reflection.”

state of Vermont

Rep. Harold “Hal” Colston, D-Winooski

Pretty scathing stuff. But if we take Colston at his sincere word, I’d like to ask: how do you know any policy X you are advocating for does not contribute to “structural racism”?

If our society is built upon racism, how can you hope to identify the racist parts, separate those parts from the whole of society, and then somehow destroy them through legislation, the modus operandi of many a progressive legislator?

Our government was built upon the rule of law, a system of government set up by white, rich men.

By even trying to create legislation within this system of “racist” government within a “racist” society, isn’t Colston just giving credibility to a system that has no inherent virtues because it was built upon the backs of slaves? To remain in the system is to admit belief that some of part of the system is worthy of redemption, something moderates, conservatives, and all those believing in gradual improvements can agree upon.

Colston voted in favor of a $15 minimum wage last year, which will likely displace the few black teenagers who work in Vermont. Should we judge his actions by the effects? Or by his sincerity in believing he is tearing down structural racism, while he is working within the system? The $15 advocates after all, love to talk about lifting people out of poverty. But if we create more minority unemployment at the same time, is this not a sign that progressives have failed to identify the “structural racisms” keeping so many minorities at risk of “progressive” policies?

If we start from the premise that the progressive worldview is inherently superior, then we must endorse any policy that they propose, without questioning its effect on minorities. But if we do not give them the “moral superiority” they urge us to accept beforehand, we will begin to realize that progressive veneer hurts minority communities far more often than it helps.

Colston concludes with a challenge: “so, when you look into the mirror, do you see an impact or a reflection? Is your life a reflection of the American experience of white supremacy culture, and I am not talking about ‘white hoods,’ but ‘white dominance’ of nearly every institution in this country? Or is your life an impact of social and racial equity that must shape our country, our state, our communities to be a ‘more perfect union?’ Are you making an impact or making a reflection?”

To be internally consistent, Colston must conclude that all white people are mere reflections of society, with no agency to correct their prejudices. Each supposed recognition of ‘a racist thing’ is a funhouse mirror concealing yet more racist things. Impact becomes impossible, because no matter what one does, it never moves the needle to our structurally unjust system. We are all mere reflections of structural injustices. Minorities as the victims, whites as the victors. Or so some say.

I would agree with Colston that our society is structurally complex. But that complexity should not encourage to us go on thousands of scorched-earth social justice crusades, destroying relationships along the way, whenever we see a societal wrong that cannot assign guilt to individuals. Societal complexity should give us humility in knowing that we cannot not right every wrong through legislation. To try will create more wrongs than with what we started with.

However, if whites and minorities are moral agents, we can use critical thinking to identify tradeoffs and make the few, deliberate choices that are good for us all. And leave the rest of those choices up to the fallible people who are neither superior or inferior to Colston. To do that, we must reject the progressive worldview.

Colston’s devotional in its entirety:

Madam Speaker: It is February 2021 and it is Black History month. I don’t believe there should be a Black History month. Why? Because it tokenizes black history. While its inception was a noble one from Carter G. Woodson who established Negro History Week in 1926, its reception for me is ‘less than,’ a minority report for BIPOC. And, then I cascade into an abyss abhorring the word ‘minority’ which is pejorative at its root. Less than, not good enough, inferior.

I am not inferior! I don’t think it is possible to bring attention in one month to the myriad of contributions conceived, created, and consummated by Americans who descended from African slaves. Black History has happened everyday of every month of every year that this country has existed. Since 1619! When our country honestly looks into the mirror, this is beyond impact! James Baldwin, who I regard as one of Black America’s most prolific prophets, wrote a book entitled ‘Remember this House.’ He was only able to write 30 pages before he passed. This work became an award-winning documentary ‘I Am Not Your Negro.’

This is how Baldwin defined a Negro. ‘What white people need to do is to find out why it was necessary in the first place to have a Negro. Because I am not a Negro; I am a man. If you think I am a Negro, it is because You need it. If I am a Negro here, then you the white people invented him. Then, you have to find out why. The future of our country depends on that, whether or not it has even asked that question.

What if the Negro was not invented?

How would our country have worked without chattel slavery, the exploitation of black and brown people who became the backbone of our capitalistic system? Who would you be? Who would we be? ‘Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, ‘We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.’ One way this garment manifests itself for me is through structural racism.

Structural racism is the normalization of many dynamics that are historical, cultural, institutional and interpersonal and routinely advantages White people while producing chronic, adverse outcomes for people of color. All of us are wounded by this system. All of us are oppressed by this system. All of us lose part of our humanity because of this system. When our country honestly looks into the mirror, this is beyond reflection.

So, when you look into the mirror, do you see an impact or a reflection? Is your life a reflection of the American experience of white supremacy culture, and I am not talking about ‘white hoods,’ but ‘white dominance’ of nearly every institution in this country? Or is your life an impact of social and racial equity

that must shape our country, our state, our communities to be a ‘more perfect union?’ Are you making an impact or making a reflection?

David Flemming is a policy analyst for the Ethan Allen Institute. Reprinted with permission from the Ethan Allen Institute Blog.

Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Beatrice Murch and state of Vermont

15 thoughts on “Flemming: A rebuttal to Rep. Colston’s ‘structural racism’ devotional diatribe

  1. So, what I would like to know is just how does this juvenile tirade by the Representative constitute a “devotional”? Does it comply with the guidelines set down for the House or not?

    • They don’t allow anyone to speak from a religious standpoint, their devotional is really Marxist devotionals, New World Order inspirations, it has nothing to do with truth, love, healing, forgiving.

      Everything to do with division, power, control and money. Standard issue subversive dogma.

  2. You’ll excuse me if I think that the focus on race is a distraction from the real and urgent issue facing us right now: the subversion of our liberties through any means possible, including through “stay safe” ideology and the “don’t look there, look here” racial right-thinking that Colston feels is so important. The house is burning, and we’re contemplating whether or not we’re truly the good citizens we could be?

    • You are right on the money. I can’t go an hour without someone making me aware of race these days. I’ve moved on and I’d like to continue moving on.

      We are not a racist country and we have some way more dire issues to fix.

  3. We know blacks are not racist at all. They enslaved their own race, sold them for profit and shipped them from Africa to destinations all over the Globe. Then they blamed everyone else for their “Original Sin” and have been living off that scam ever since. Africa today still has an active slave trade in certain African countries. If anyone owes reoperations for slavery It is those African countries who did this horrible discussing thing to their own people!

  4. Rep. Colston should indeed look in “that mirror”. He will probably be unable to see that government, specifically the federal government from the mid-1960’s on is culpable for policy and laws that got us to where we are today. Rather than pontificate, Mr. Colston- broaden your knowledge by reading some of what Walter E Williams and Thomas Sowell have written. Government policy continues to enslave, by using entitlement programs, welfare and social programs to economically stifle advancement of ALL races. Mr. Colston, as a member of the Vermont legislature your actions do more to continue the “systemic racism” you proclaim to erase.

  5. Critical race Theory arose in the 1970s, through the critical study of law as it pertains to the issues of race. The word ‘critical’ here means that its intention and methods are specifically geared toward identifying and exposing problems in order to facilitate revolutionary political change. Postmodern Theorists are concerned with linguistic and social systems and aim to deconstruct discourses… language is power.

    Critical race Theorists Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic wrote this:

    “Unlike traditional civil rights discourse, which stresses incrementalism and step-by-step progress, critical race theory questions the very foundations of the liberal [meaning Constitutional] order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law.”

    Much of what I wrote came from the book Cynical Theories by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay. It should be read by all who want to understand the nature of the enemy and the fight before us.

  6. How about a rising tide lifts all boats? How does that work with his fabric of society. Vermont isn’t racist, they look to equaly enslave the black, brown and the white man with despair, hopelessness, oppression and poverty!

    Look we are doing it to all our white bothers and sisters! Poverty and home ownership out of reach. We engineer poverty and broken homes with abandon. We make it difficult for all colors to own their own business and rise out of the slave wages.

    On a national level the systemic racism is never ending. Hollywood stereo types fill our populace with the notion non whites only want to be drug dealers and gang leaders.

    Our school system perhaps the most racist institution of late declares the black man too stupid to do math! How racist can you get? They steal the money which could be giving excellent educational opportunities to those found in certain cities a give them crap. Unsafe, drug filled schools riddled with crime. Where are these located? Who is running them?

    We’ve got some problems in our society, but the representative from Winooski has no clue. Yet here they are spreading this hate, division and stupidity. Please put this on the record for all to see.

  7. Mandated minimum wage is an enforced economic class stratification tool. It guarantees that the uneducated, the unskilled cannot underbid those already holding jobs or those job seekers with college or trade school degrees. At the startup level, it reinforces the “not what you know but who you know” advantage of having the right connections, to which the economically and educationally advantage are more likely to have. The minimum wage protects those advantaged job seekers from being underbid. The mandated minimum wage denies a personal right to market themselves to an employer, to gain job experience, to develop a work history, to be self supporting with the ultimate potential of accumulating wealth. A principle I follow, a good one believe, is to completely ignore a politician’s justification for a program or bill but instead to analyze what it will accomplish. Insofar as that result is rationally predictable and particular when it has historical precedent I assume that to be the politician’s actual intended goal. Why Mr. Colston wants to exaggerate this stratification, particularly during an economic slump is another matter – I don’t know his history so upon that I cannot reasonably speculate. Is this to insure that Biden’s open borders extranjeros will find themselves locked out of fhe labor market?

  8. The issue of race, white supremacy and white privilege has been on the front burner for the past several months and its generated plenty of heat in our streets, our legislature, our kitchen tables, the media and the press…..Especially coverage in the New York Times.

    Today the NYT had a front page article entitled “Inside the battle over race, class and power at Smith College”representing a 180 degree turn from its regular coverage of racial issues…..Could this article be signaling that maybe a change in thinking or tone maybe needed in considering and covering race? A change that recognizes how all people are treated and impacted?

    Take a look at the Times article and decide for yourself….. Is it time for some changes in how racial matters are handled and reported.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/us/smith-college-race.html

  9. If their black, brown Indigenous, counterparts tell them every day there is nothing but downtrodden for them in an evil “white Culture”………

    …..Are they also telling their groups that there is no hope, no use trying, nothing to gain, no need to get good grades. No decent job for you – ever!! You are already screwed by the white folks.

    Then why should these groups even try, they are convinced by their own leaders, there is NOTHING for them. No matter how they try…….
    Don’t bother!! “The Man” will hold you down!

Comments are closed.