What Does “Real” Racial Equity Look Like?

When it comes to racial equity in this country, many people equate progress with the achievements of Black individuals who have ascended to high-ranking positions or celebrity status. And it’s true: the wealth or power that these individuals hold signifies a level of change to the rest of us, giving Black Americans more prominent members in our culture and society to look up to and through which to see greater possibilities for our own futures.

But let’s examine what “progress” or “real” racial equity really means. Is true equity the ascension of a select few? And how does the ascension of those individuals impact the broader Black experience, if at all?

Before we dive in, I’ve got a little pop quiz (don’t worry—it’s not graded):

• In what year was the first Black person elected to the U.S. Senate?

• …the first Black person elected to the House of Representatives?

• …the first Black student to graduate from Harvard?

• …the first Black millionaire?

• …the first Black person appointed as a federal judge?

• …the first Black Supreme Court Justice?

• …the first Black woman elected to Congress?

I’ll come back to these questions and their answers later on. But for now, let’s examine one recent example of individual ascension.

Exemplars of Black achievement

In April, we celebrated the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. In that month’s edition of UpCurrent, which was published just before her confirmation, I wrote about the controversy that surrounded her nomination, and why it shouldn’t have been controversial at all. Judge Jackson is more than qualified for the position, and her nomination and confirmation are great accomplishments that we should all applaud.

However, while some see Judge Jackson’s confirmation to the court as a greater example of progress towards racial equity in this country, I argue that we cannot confuse it as such. In fact, I caution all of us not to overestimate the progress of individual achievements, because, in reality, Jackson’s nomination does not reflect progress for Black people as a whole. Most individual achievements do not. And that’s because what affects Black people as a whole is determined by the institutions and systems we have in place.

In short, the appointment or election of Black individuals to high positions of power does not necessarily address the issue of institutional racism.

Of course, people often do not see it that way. As I discuss in Chapter 1 of my book, The Conversation, most White people believe that systemic racism against Black people no longer exists in the U.S. One of the factors underlying this belief is what is referred to as “availability bias,” which describes how the existence of salient examples of Black power and success (e.g., Obama, Oprah, Beyoncé, etc.) leads to the belief that racism must not be operating. After all, if racism is really an issue then how could they possibly succeed? Wouldn’t racism effectively prevent them from becoming heads of state, media moguls, and international superstars?

Do exceptions make the rule?

There have been individual examples of Black achievement for a very long time—as far back as the mid-1800s. Would it be safe to assume that racism did not exist in the 19th century? Clearly, there is a disconnect between individual exceptions and institutional rules. But it is very easy to conflate the two, assuming that one is evidence of the other. Indeed, much of the country assumed that we were post-racial following the 2008 election of Barack Obama.

Still, it is a complex issue. To illustrate this point, I want to share an exchange I had in March of this year at the New Orleans Book Festival. I was attending the festival to discuss The Conversation in a joint session with the former New Orleans mayor and current President and CEO of the National Urban League, Marc Morial, who was discussing his book, The Gumbo Coalition. We spent most of the session answering questions specific to each of our books, but later, after we’d each shared our thoughts on how to promote racial equity in society, a Black high school student in the audience, named Kadir, asked us this:

I told Kadir I don’t think Biden has done a lot. He’s made some very noble symbolic gestures—namely, of course, nominating a Black woman to the Supreme Court and having a Black woman as his vice president—but the aggregated situation among Black people has really not changed under his administration.

While he’s elevated individuals, he’s yet to resolve institutional issues, such as voting rights, criminal justice reform, and economic disparities.

Marc, however, disagreed with me. In his view, the actions that Biden has taken to promote Black individuals to positions of power have done a lot. To Marc, the Supreme Court nomination and choice of a Black running mate are not merely symbolic; those individuals are real people with real power, and they signify real change.

To the delight of our audience, Marc and I proceeded to have an animated—or “spicy,” as they’d say in NOLA—debate, each of us arguing our viewpoints. You can watch the full exchange below if you’d like.

Symbolic moments, not codified change

Admittedly, both of our points have some basis in truth. It is important that we see Black people represented in high positions. But it doesn’t get us as far as we think, and it comes down to institutional vs. individual progress.

At the top of this article, I asked you—as I asked Kadir at the Book Festival—in what years were the first Black people elected or appointed to certain positions in government.

In response to my question “When was the first Black person elected to the U.S. Senate?” Kadir said, “I’m going with 1942.”

“Yeah, many people say 1940 to 1960—maybe 1970,” I replied, “but it was actually in 1870.” Over 150 years ago.

Do you know the other answers?

• The year the first Black person was elected to the House of Representatives? Also 1870, Joseph Rainey of South Carolina

• The first Black person to run for President? 1858, Frederick Douglass

• The first Black person to graduate from Harvard? 1870, Richard Theodore Greener

• The first Black millionaires? Born in the 1840s, Madame C.J. Walker and William Liedesdorff, separately

• The first Black person appointed as a federal judge? 1937, William H. Hastie, appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt

• The first Black Supreme Court Justice? 1967, Thurgood Marshall, nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson

• The first Black woman elected to Congress? 1968, Shirley Chisolm of New York

We have had Black individuals in positions of power for over a century. Would it have made sense to argue that racism didn’t exist in 1870 because of the existence of a handful of Black millionaires? I think not. Similarly, would it have made sense to argue that we had achieved racial equity with the election of the first Black political representative? No way. Looking at more aggregated measures of economic, political, or educational attainment reveals a clearer picture of the prevalence of systemic racism, then and now.

Dismantling our systems and institutions

Individual examples of Black achievement are not as novel as some might assume. And such examples are never definitive evidence of how the average Black person is faring. That’s why we need not just conspicuous (albeit important) individual nominations and candidacies, but also (and more importantly) change in our institutions.

When we talk about “systemic” racism, the concept can seem rather vague and mysterious. It’s difficult for many people to wrap their heads around something so abstract. In my book, I talk about five concrete, interconnected foundations that account for the vast majority of systemic or institutional racism:

1. Voting rights

2. Economic inequality

3. Public education

4. Criminal justice

5. Health disparities

It is these foundations that require attention in order to eradicate racism. But we clearly need to start somewhere, and individual appointments of Black people to positions of power are one place. But they’re just that: a start.

For progress to be broadly consequential, institutional changes must come alongside individual achievements.

So, what else can be done?