In James Coley’s, Taking on the Sins of Our Fathers, a response to my earlier blog I am a Racist, he dismisses my assertion that I am a racist as unfounded, defying common sense and a feckless exercise in a white guilt discourse of self-flagellation. James says that because I did not create slavery, racism or Jim Crow, I have no culpability. He sees the move from white privilege to racism as disconnected – a non sequitur.

I am not guilty of causing racism.

I did not create racism or white privilege or contemporary America’s racist construct.

I clearly benefit from my privileged position, even as I am an unwilling participant in this racist system.

I ask myself, ‘what level of participation and benefit do I need to receive from America’s racist construct before stepping up and taking responsibility for the perpetuation of the system?’

I recognize that I am an inheritor of racism. With it, I have inherited a moral debt and, for me, this creates a moral obligation.

I choose to claim the term ‘racist’ to recognize my position of privilege and to take responsibility for the resulting moral obligation.

When I saw America’s racist construct as an amorphous historical legacy that I neither caused nor had responsibility for, I lived comfortably with my privilege, secure in the knowledge that I had earned my way through life, and I felt powerless to take on dismantling the system.

Owning the term ‘racist’ empowers me to study the issues and propels me to action.

My claim of racism is both personal and motivational. It recognizes the reality of racism and compels me to act.

How do I go about changing a racist system that is woven into the very fabric of our society?

Recognition is the first step. Claiming my privilege is the second step. Engaging in dialog is the next step.

In claiming responsibility for my part in perpetuating racism, I recognize the necessity for change – change in me and change in our society.

Yours in Continuing Ethical Struggle,

Randy Best

Leader, Ethical Humanist Society of the Triangle