all-in-one-wp-security-and-firewall domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/wp_mjgj8c/racefiles.com/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114In the classic book,\u00a0Faces At The Bottom Of The Well:\u00a0 The Permanence of Racism<\/em><\/a>, legal scholar Derrick Bell put forth this proposition:\u00a0“Black people will never gain full equality in this country. Even those herculean efforts we hail as successful will produce no more than temporary ‘peaks of progress,’ short-lived victories that slide into irrelevance as racial patterns adapt in ways that maintain white dominance. This is a hard-to-accept fact that all history verifies. We must acknowledge it, not as a sign of submission, but as an act of ultimate defiance.”<\/em><\/p>\n I consider Derrick Bell<\/a> a racial justice hero. To acknowledge the permanence of racism is indeed the ultimate act of defiance because this fact, once we acknowledged, leads necessarily to the conclusion that simple reform (what another great hero, the Rev. Mac Charles Jones<\/a>, once told me leads only to re-formation<\/em> of a broken system) will never lift us out of white supremacy. To end racism, we must look beyond reformation to transformation.<\/p>\n It’s a radical notion, but I’m a believer.<\/p>\n On the other hand, I’m also a practical sort. If we are to one day find ourselves at the threshold of radical transformation, we need a map to help us find our way, and then focus on getting there one step at a time.<\/p>\n On any map there are many paths to one’s chosen destination. For racial justice advocates, I think one path is the changing racial demography of the U.S.<\/p>\n By the year 2042<\/a>, it is predicted that we will be a majority minority nation, with Latinos representing about a third of the population by no later than 2050. That means whites will soon no longer constitute the majority ethnic group. Even the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant group in the country and a bastion of whiteness and conservatism, is in decline<\/a>.<\/p>\n What that means is that pretty soon, white supremacy may meet its greatest challenge. If we can get it together, people of color won’t have to ask whites for permission to create policies that address the destructive legacy of racism. But, the big question is, will we get it together and act as the majority, or will we remain divided and allow whites to remain in control as the largest minority?<\/p>\n To me, all of this hinges on something called privilege.<\/p>\n Racism endures in spite of generations of resistance because it is enforced by violence and intimidation, and empowered by privilege. It’s a carrot and stick situation. Without the carrot, the stick isn’t enough to keep us all doing our little bits to maintain white dominance.<\/p>\n