“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today the RCMP and other police agencies across the country have a problem with systemic racism — a day after RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki said she's "struggling" with the term and denied racism is entrenched within the organization.
"Systemic racism is an issue right across the country, in all our institutions, including in all our police forces, including in the RCMP. That's what systemic racism is," said Trudeau when asked about Lucki's comments by reporters during a news conference in Ottawa this morning.” [1]
Commissioner Lucki said this, “That is an interesting question because in the last couple of days I have honestly heard about 15 or 20 definitions of systemic racism," she said.
"If it refers to an unconscious bias that exists ... we definitely have that in the RCMP and we are not immune to it at all. There are times when our members don't act in accordance with our core values, which includes racism, and it's those times that we have to make sure that that doesn't happen."” [1]
Lucki is on point. People are using the term “systemic racism” in casual and careless ways. Prime Minister Trudeau is using the term in casual and careless ways. If we are talking about Canadian government policy in years past that levied indelible harm to our indigenous people, that is systemic racism. If we are talking about dogmatic, legislated assaults on black Americans by the US government in years past, that is systemic racism. For systemic racism to occur in Canada’s police forces there needs to be structural, programmatic, pedagogical intent and applications toward racism. Quite clearly there is not. As a former soldier I can say with confidence that there is not systemic racism in the Armed Forces. Businesses and institutions cannot be unilaterally slurred be assuming systemic racism.
This attempt to deflecting the problem and blaming systems is an age-old trick — and it won’t work. Commissioner Lucki is closer to the truth as she uses the term “unconscious bias”. And that charge can be duly levied upon all mankind. The Bible calls it our “sin nature”. It is our default setting. We are born with one shtick and that is to prefer ourselves above others. We live in a post-modern world where words and definitions don’t matter. The cultural definition of racism is so broad and so thin it is meaningless, all meaningless. As the Commissioner noted there is no agreement on the term systemic racism.
Nelson Mandela unfortunately said this, “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate.” Nothing could be more wrong than that. His application is that if we learn to hate we can learn to love. Not a chance!!! The Bible teaches us that we are born with a sin nature that is inclined to all manner of evil including preferring ourselves over others. Apart from a change of heart that is offered in the Christian Gospel, there is no hope.
The Bible teaches that there is but one race. The Bible teaches that through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ our self-centered, self-absorbed, self-centered default bias can be forgiven and replaced with a heart motivation to love God and love others as ourselves. This can only occur through the miracle of salvation. When this miracle takes place, men and women, blacks and whites, people from every nation, tribe and language are united in essential and eternal unity with Christ and one another. There is no other solution.
So Commissioner Lucki I commend you. We do have an unconscious bias to honour, prefer, love ourselves above others and only the redeeming work of Jesus Christ can change that.
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1. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rcmp-systemic-racism-lucki-trudeau-1.5607622{
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