I honestly don't know exactly what that is supposed to be. I'm not defending a particular doctrine.

I agree that individuals should be considered as that, and not as a representative of this or that group. Seeing Americans of more recent African heritage as representatives of 'their race' was always recognized as one of the falsities of racism.

Still, it seems obvious to me that centuries of overt, abject racism, first as slavery then as segregation enforced by terror (i.e., the Klan), had to shape both the people and 'the system' in this nation in ways that go so deep, are so far beneath the surface that their affects appear to be what 'normal' looks like. to me, that's what makes the lingering affects of racism so insidious, and makes making an issue of it seem so gratuitously critical.