The most immediately obvious problem with this article is that it rests on the assumption that Hamas launches rocket attacks on Israel for no other reason that boredom or having nothing better to do.
By Jonah Goldberg
Structural racism means different things to different people. But here’s a serviceable definition from the Aspen Institute, hardly a hotbed of conservatism:
Structural Racism: A system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity. It identifies dimensions of our history and culture that have allowed privileges associated with “whiteness” and disadvantages associated with “color” to endure and adapt over time. Structural racism is not something that a few people or institutions choose to practice. Instead it has been a feature of the social, economic and political systems in which we all exist. [Emphasis mine]
Fair definitions of systemic and institutional racism, as well as sexism, track with this. These notions emerged from critical race theory and other projects intended to explain disparities in outcome when no racist intent could be found. While I have many disagreements with people who make a living using these ideas as cudgels, I am also perfectly willing to concede that there are many examples of structural, systemic, and institutional racism. Although, if you search for “examples of institutional racism” on Google, a great many of them don’t conform to this definition. Most of the examples here, for instance, are just examples of racism, full stop. You don’t need modifiers to the word “racist” when describing slavery or Jim Crow.
