The Burden of Proof is on Racism Deniers

Presumptions of innocence are for courtrooms, not sociological discussions

Image: Andrey_Popov, Shutterstock, used under standard license, purchased by author

Imagine a society where one group of people were routinely advantaged over another for hundreds of years. I know it’s a stretch, but give it a shot.

The first group was afforded opportunities off-limits to others — even the right to own members of the second group and beat or kill them with impunity if they sought to escape bondage.

And even after this was no longer allowed, for another hundred years, they were favored over the second group in every arena of life: jobs, education, housing access, health care availability, and the justice system.

Members of the second group were largely unable to accumulate assets and pass them down to their kids.

They were unable to procure homes in neighborhoods where home values were continuously increasing.

They were placed in schools with inferior resources and relegated to the lowest rung jobs, with few exceptions. And all of this was legal.

Now, imagine that 350 years into this society’s existence, laws were finally passed to prohibit the discrimination that had been its hallmark for 15 generations — not because of some grand moral epiphany, mind you, but…