“Edward Blum has been working toward the end of race-based admissions in higher education for years,” writes Lulu Garcia-Navarro in the lede sentence of her interview that was published in the New York Times on July 8. Here we just want to focus on one key question and answer:
Garcia-Navarro: I am wondering if you believe in systemic racism — racism embedded in the institutions of American life. Because if you look at statistics in this country, a typical white family holds 10 times the wealth that a typical Black family does. There are currently only eight Black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, 20 Latino CEOs. Black people live sicker lives and they die younger than white people. I could go on.
Blum: No, I do not believe in it. What your question implies is that in the American DNA there is racism. It was founded upon racism. It is part of what this country is. I reject that.
Blum’s short answer goes a long way to explain the backlash against affirmative action and other compensatory policies that seek to ameliorate cycles of racism. Those who support affirmative action generally argue that systemic racism is an important feature of political economy; those who oppose affirmative action generally deny or downplay the effects of systemic racism.
Affirmative action is one way of asserting that law and policy should be mindful of systemic racism. The logical rationale for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs follows along similar lines.
Attacks on affirmative action are often motivated by a denial of systemic racism, as we see with Blum. If systemic racism is not real in the first place, then there is no real problem that law or policy needs to address.
In Blum’s case, we find that the denial of systemic racism takes the form of an informal fallacy known as “begging the question,” when “an argument’s premises assume the truth of the conclusion” (Wikipedia). Blum’s denial of systemic racism as a conclusion follows from the premise that America cannot have been racist from the start. Since America cannot have been racist from the start, systemic racism cannot be a problem today.
What motivates such passionate commitment to the fallacy of denying systemic racism in America? Could it be that if one takes pride in being an American, the feeling of that pride may take a form that precludes any admission of racism in American history, then or now?
On the other hand, the Texas Civil Rights Review takes the approach exemplified by Frederick Douglass. If there is a legitimate pride in being American, it will lie in our passionate efforts to fulfill the Preamble of our Constitution against all challenges, including the challenge of systemic racism:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Texas Civil Rights Review 
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