Prof: Racism has become a 'culture of the people' in US, 'it's everywhere'
A professor at Dominican University said that racism is “a culture of the people” in America.
He said that racism is “not just endemic with the police, it’s everywhere.”
A professor at Dominican University says that racism has “become a culture of the people” in the United States.
Nkuzi Nnam — who leads the Black World Studies department at Dominican, a Roman Catholic university in River Forest, Illinois — told the student newspaper about the history of racist policies in the U.S., asserting that racism is embedded in American society.
[RELATED: Harvard creates ‘race-based’ groups to discuss ‘anti-Black racism’]
“People tend to look at individual racism but the problem is, it is more of a system… that means, the kind of racism that is found in society that has become a culture of the people,” Nnam said. “It is so engrained that many people don’t consider it to be racism. These are the more destructive ones, and that is what’s in our society, and it’s very dangerous.”
“So my point is, we can continue to talk about systemic racism forever, but it’s not just endemic with the police, it’s everywhere,” he added.
Nnam explained that the Black World Studies department is “teaching people to understand that it’s out of ignorance that anyone would consider another person to be different based on the color of their skin.”
The Black World Studies department — which seeks to teach students about the idea of “Blackness” — hosts courses that include “Critical Race Theory” and “Being Black in America: A Reflection.”
The latter is “a philosophical appraisal” of “what it means to be Black in America.”
Students cover topics including police brutality, Black Lives Matter, racial profiling, and affirmative action.
Campus Reform reached out to Nnam for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @BenZeisloft