What’s Up With White People Sharing Videos of Famous Black People Saying Racism Doesn’t Exist?

Okay, what’s up with white people sharing viral videos of famous Black people saying systemic racism doesn’t exist?

In short, it’s nothing new; only the medium has changed. But to fully address the question, we need to dive into the constantly dueling narratives of racist and racial progress that drives so much of American history.

In the years immediately preceding and following the Civil War, the fight for the abolition of slavery and equal rights devolved into an ideological turf war among various groups of “white intellectuals” peddling a mixture of racist and anti-racist ideas.

Some of these groups included: Segregationists (people who believed the white and Black people should be kept separate), Assimilationists (people who believed Black people could integrate into white society), Abolitionists (people who wanted to see the institution of slavery come to an end), and Integrationists (people who believed white and black people were already culturally equal).

And, unfortunately, these groups tended to cross-pollinate. For example, a person could be both an Abolitionist and a Segregationist, like those in favor of Colonization (the movement that believed slavery should end and all freed slaves be sent back…