Could America Function Without Racism?

*This is not a question of hatred. It is a question of history.

Can white people survive without racism?

More honestly: can America, and much of the Western world, function without the economic, political, and psychological advantages created by white supremacy?

For more than 400 years, the United States has built wealth, power, and institutional control through systems rooted in racial exclusion. From stolen Indigenous land to enslaved African labor, from redlining to mass incarceration, from the Tuskegee experiment to discriminatory lending, racism was not a side effect of American history—it was a central business model.

The Bible warns in Proverbs 22:16: “Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase… will come to poverty.” America must confront whether its prosperity was built on justice—or theft.

The numbers tell the story.

According to Pew Research Center, the median wealth of Black households remains dramatically below that of white households, while lower-income white households had about 21 times the wealth of lower-income Black households in 2021. This is not accidental. It is the long shadow of policy: slavery without reparations, Jim Crow without restoration, and civil rights without economic repair.

Forty acres and a mule never came.

But redlining did.

Mass incarceration did.

Predatory policing did.

Environmental poisoning of Black neighborhoods did.

HBCUs had to be created because Black people were excluded from predominantly white institutions. Black Wall Streets were built because Black people were denied equal access to white economic systems. Welfare policies often destabilized Black families while industrial policies extracted labor and left fragile infrastructure behind.

And globally, the same pattern exists.

Africa—rich in gold, cobalt, diamonds, oil, iron ore, uranium, and rare earth minerals—has long funded the prosperity of Europe, China, and the United States. The World Bank notes Africa holds over 30% of global reserves of key green-transition minerals, including more than 50% of the world’s cobalt and over 96% of platinum group metals. The Democratic Republic of Congo alone accounts for about 70% of global cobalt supply, a critical material for electric vehicle batteries.

Without African extraction, many global economies would look very different.

France’s colonial wealth.

Britain’s imperial rise.

Belgium’s Congo blood economy.

American industrial expansion.

Chinese mineral dominance strategies.

All roads lead back to African labor, African land, and African resources.

And yet Africa is too often discussed as poor instead of plundered.

Ecclesiastes 5:8 reminds us: “If you see the oppression of the poor and denial of justice… do not be surprised.”

Racism is profitable.

That is why it survives.

It is not merely prejudice. It is policy.

It is mortgage denial.

It is school funding formulas.

It is healthcare disparities.

It is sentencing disparities.

It is media framing.

It is NIL structures where access, branding, and institutional pipelines often determine who profits most—not simply talent.

This is why Black women, the most educated demographic in America, continue to face underpayment and disproportionate job instability.

It is why an apology without reparations is a performance.

America has apologized before.

But sorry, without repair is a strategy, not repentance.

Zacchaeus in Luke 19 did not say, “I regret it.”

He said, “If I have cheated anybody… I will pay back four times the amount.”

That is biblical justice.

Reparations are not revenge.

They are accountability.

The Tuskegee experiment was not ancient history.

Redlining was not accidental.

Drug proliferation into Black communities was not random.

Lynching was not isolated.

These were structures.

And structures create generational outcomes.

The question is not whether racism existed.

The question is whether white America is willing to live without its benefits.

Can institutions compete fairly without inherited advantage?

Can neighborhoods thrive without exclusion?

Can education succeed without gatekeeping?

Can capitalism function without racial hierarchy?

That is the real experiment.

Because white supremacy is not just about hatred of Black people—it is about dependence on unequal systems.

Some people fear equality because equality feels like oppression when privilege has been mistaken for normal.

But the future cannot be built on denial.

It must be built on truth.

America cannot heal what it refuses to diagnose.

Europe cannot preach morality while ignoring colonial theft.

Global powers cannot celebrate clean energy while exploiting African mines with dirty ethics.

And white people—like all people—must decide whether identity can survive without domination.

The answer should be yes.

Because whiteness should not require supremacy.

Leadership should not require exclusion.

Success should not require theft.

But history suggests that many institutions still struggle to imagine prosperity without racial hierarchy.

That must change.

Not because Black people need permission to rise.

But because justice demands it.

And because a society built on inequality eventually collapses under the weight of its own contradictions.

Can African Americans in the U.S. and other Black people globally survive with racism? Yes! Indeed, millions of whites have survived without being racists, in practice and in thought. Could they survive without the seen and unseen complexion privileges sustained from 500 years of racism? This is a question for anyone who considers themselves to be Anglo-Saxon, Caucasian, European American, WASP, or, generally, white survive without racism? They must. 

Because the alternative is moral bankruptcy disguised as civilization.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Edmond W. Davis is an American social historian, international speaker, and Amazon #1 bestselling author. He is a global authority on the Tuskegee Airmen and serves as the founder and executive director of the National HBCU Black Wall Street Career Fest. A native of Philadelphia, PA, and current resident of Little Rock, AR, Davis is committed to cultural empowerment and educational equity through storytelling and civic engagement. Davis is a grand marshal at the 38th Annual African American History Month Celebration Parade.

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