Anthony Eichberger
2 min readAug 16, 2021

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One way to finally make progress on this issue would be to delineate racism into three basic subcategories: systemic (institutional or governmentally-facilitated), social (interpersonal or individual), and cultural (groupthink or mob-based).

The former subcategory -- systemic racism -- are conditions and actions endured exclusively by Black, Indigenous, & People of Color. Granted, many White people already understand this concept on the intellectual level (although not as lived experiences)...but there are also, of course, the White folks who seem perpetually closed off to either learning about, or acknowledging, what makes systemic racism distinct and how it works. This delineation of subcategories can more effectively disseminate that education process.

So, the conversation can be framed in this manner: while White people (as do People of Color) can be the targets of the latter two subcategories -- social racism and/or cultural racism -- BIPOC victims get terrorized by that EXTRA LAYER of racism, as in systemic racism.

This is a good way to begin reframing the entire conversation to close the gap between the two different factions of White people who are viewing things from dissimilar starting-points.

This will be a MUCH MORE effective way to shift White perception of systemic racism, macroscopically, rather than subjecting them to inane Robin DiAngelo or Tim Wise lectures.

And, again, there's always going to be a cross-section of White people who simply refuse to try to learn about Black, Latino, Asian, APIDA/MENA experiences -- regardless of what *any* of us say to them. At a certain point, it becomes a waste of breath to try to persuade that group...and the focus should remain on those who are open to learning more.

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Anthony Eichberger
Anthony Eichberger

Written by Anthony Eichberger

Gay. Millennial. Pagan/Polytheist. Disabled. Rural-Born. Politically-Independent. Fashion-Challenged. Rational Egoist. Survivor. #AgriWarrior (Deal With It!)

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