This Is Not Proof of American Systemic Racism

Hector Guthrie
1 min readJun 9, 2023

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I once spoke to a friend about race issues in America. She, a feminist daughter of immigrants, told me that there is definitely systemic racism in America. When I asked her what she meant she responded with this example.

“When I go visit my grandmother in Mexico she harps on me to stay out of the sun, because if I don’t I’ll get dark and ugly”.

Outwardly I nodded and said, “I’m sorry to hear that.” But inwardly I thought. “You chose a story from Mexico and not the US, and from a family member and not a system. How is a familial story from Mexico indicative of a system in America. It also fails short of proving racism (though leftists will be quick to point out it is colorism, which again, is the wrong -ism).

Why should I believe a familial colorism story in Mexico proves systemic racism in the US? But it appears that for the feminist, it makes complete logical sense. That just gives me more questions about logic though.

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Hector Guthrie

I am a thinker and a writer. As a religious minority, a gender minority, a racial minority, and a political minority, I think I have something to say.