Out of the outpouring of justified rage at the death of George Floyd there is a growing claim that our country is systemically racist. That is not true. The numbers do not support the claim. The country has unanimously reacted in horror to what happened to Floyd. But, as the numbers show, murder of black people by cops is rare. Unfortunately, murder happens every day which means we have some bad people in our country, and they need to be brought to justice regardless of the race of the victim or the perpetrator.
Do we still have racism in America? Yes. And we probably always will because in a country of 300 million people there will always be outliers. It has been a long time coming, but we have reduced racism to a few individuals and pockets. We must work together to be sure that racists are prevented from turning their perverted beliefs into violent or illegal actions. I think we need to help disadvantaged minorities to get the education and training to move into the middle class.
Maybe one pocket of systemic racism we should look at first is Minneapolis where George Floyd was murdered. From what I read this was not the first time these police officers abused their powers. Minneapolis is a very liberal, progressive city and is completely controlled by the Democratic Party, so how could this have happened? It also has among the highest racial disparities in poverty, education quality, and employment in the country. It seems to me the progressivism there is only good intentions, not good actions.
The leaders in Minneapolis proposed solution to the problem is to abolish the police department. Once again a policy that might appeal to an angry mob in the heat of the moment. But one that every sane person knows would lead to even bigger disasters.