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Can African-Americans be racist? Like other seemingly philosophical questions, the answer varies.

If one subscribes to racism being an institutional structure that African-Americans did not create, they would most likely answer in the negative.

Others have chosen to nuance the question by adding reverse racism into the lexicon. Ive always found this to be a curious term in that it suggests that somehow racism, in the hands of marginalized groups, possesses the ability to swim up-stream.

Racism is often transmuted to as the big brother of prejudice. The two are not the same.

I fully admit my prejudice against beets, snakes and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Everyone has prejudices, which could include certain people. But this is not racism.

Did the election of Barack Obama officially usher America into some post-racial Nirvana? In poll after poll, whites are more likely to accept 21stcentury America as post-racial than African-Americans. I suspect as long was we maintain a sophomoric understanding of racism, such data is unlikely to change.

Racism must be removed from the hackneyed black/white axis. It should not be based on people but rather on policy and procedures.

The federal sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine has been widely touted as a racist policy that has led to mass incarceration. What has been discussed less is the Congressional Black Caucus at the behest of many African-American leaders in local communities, supported those policies.

The context for that support was not some diabolical plan to rid communities of young black and Latino men, but rather the primordial desire to feel safe. The level of violence, especially in urban areas, during the crack epidemic made the desire for Congress to take action understandable. But it was ultimately a reactionary policy that was blind to the unintended consequences.

Intent notwithstanding, the outcome suggests many within the Congressional Black Caucus and those African-American leaders supported what could be viewed as a racist policy. Glossing over such details seeks a mythical moral high ground that does nothing to move the conversation forward.

After the Supreme Court gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, in Shelby County v. Holder, many states previously under its provision went to work to make voting more onerous. This had a pernicious impact on low-income and the elderly, as well as some people of color.

Led by state governments dominated by Republicans, the motivation may well have been to suppress the vote of those unlikely to support their candidates. But the legitimacy of the policies was marred by its dishonest justification.

The case for widespread voter fraud has yet to be proven. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, voter fraud in the 2016 election was between 0.0003 and 0.0025 percent. These findings hardly justify systematically disenfranchising untold numbers of registered voters.

In 2016, the 4thCircuit panel ruled against North Carolinas newly instituted voter laws stating: The new provisions target African-Americans with almost surgical precision and impose cures for problems that did not exist.

Some hold to the theory that blacks cannot be racist because they would first need to subjugate whites. But that oversimplifies the institution of racism that operates in an amoral paradigm. For this to be true, wouldnt it also negate any African-Americans from participating in the institution?

How does one account for the two black officers who plead guilty in shooting deaths of black civilians during Hurricane Katrina?

Neither George Zimmerman, who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, nor Officer Jeronimo Yanez, who killed Philando Castile, were white. But in my view both were guilty of racist acts.

Anyone participating in institutions of power can be susceptible to the nefarious clutches of racism. Yanez power lay in his being an officer; Zimmerman was bolstered by Floridas Stand Your Ground law.

We must find a better way to talk about racism.What we have now is too simplistic. Its only contribution is to assure arrested development.

Byron Williams is a contributing columnist. Contact him at 510-208-6417 or byron@byronspeaks.com.

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Williams: Need better understanding for conversation of racism - East Bay Times