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One exchange last night captured for me the racism of this admin and the veneer they try to put on it: Pence declared he was insulted on behalf of law enforcement by the assertion that there is systemic racism in LE. He implied that Biden/Harris were calling cops racist. (Thread)
We'll leave aside the absurdity of a white man lecturing a woman of color on whether there is such a thing as systemic racism. Instead, focus on the data: Black people and people of color are statistically far more likely to be victims of police violence. https://www.pnas.org/content/116/34/16793
There are three possible explanations: One is systemic racism. As Radley Balko points out, this doesn't mean that cops are racist--it means that the system produces racially disparate outcomes regardless of whether the people in the system are racist. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/opinions/systemic-racism-police-evidence-criminal-justice-system/
This is the position Biden and Harris have advocated and the one for which Pence took them to task. It is also the position that focuses least on the individuals, despite Pence's manufactured outrage. But, as we know, he's good at manufactured outrage. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/20955550/mike-pence-leaves-san-francisco-49ers-indianapolis-colts-game-protesting-national-anthem
The other two explanations are more disturbing: One is that there are enough racist cops that, even if the rest of the system is fair, outcomes will differ violently by race. This isn't the position that Biden/Harris have taken, but it's a real concern. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/hidden-plain-sight-racism-white-supremacy-and-far-right-militancy-law
The last explanation is that neither the system nor the cops are racist. This means race plays no significant role in police violence. By this logic, the problem isn't cops or the system, it's violent people of color. This is the Trump/Pence position. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/us/politics/trump-suburbs-housing-white-voters.html
Pence looks much more like a traditional politician than Trump, and he's better at wrapping racist views in language that makes us less uncomfortable. But when you peel away his false outrage, what he's really saying is, "how dare you upset the system--get back in your place."
There are many issues on the ballot this year. One of them is whether all citizens are created equal. If Pence doesn't believe there is racism in the system, the only answer left is that it's OK for race to determine your odds of being killed by police. That's not equal.
