Blame the System
Photo by Funeh
Over the last decade, I observed minority groups demand more opportunities and blame the ‘system’ for any disparity between their personal achievements or statistical progress and those of majority groups. Often, they deliberately ignore that within these groups, several individuals do not meet the generalized definitions of that group’s success or failure.
I was discussing work with a relative recently, and the conversation veered off in a direction that prompted him to declare that the colour of his skin had recently prevented him from getting a loan. “Why do you think it was because you were black that you didn’t get the loan?” I asked to clarify. “Why else would a white guy get the same loan?” he replied with a question. I challenged him to compare his qualifications against the other guy whom he knew well, by the way. He identified differences between both applications and acknowledged that they were significant enough to allow any reasonable person to deny his application over the other applicant, even if their race was unknown.
After we reached that conclusion, he switched it up on me. “Credit history should not be used in determining who should be eligible for loans.” I reminded him that the credit score requirement does not affect blacks specifically and would affect any race. Eliminating that requirement will allow him to get his loan today but wouldn’t necessarily favour blacks. At the same time, it would assist every other race that had similar credit issues.
Without spending any time trying to disprove our discovery, he lunged on further to suggest that the Canadian system was skewed against blacks and that it had been designed to favour whites. These claims were particularly bizarre coming from him, considering that he had received other loans for his startup business within only five years of moving to Canada. In addition, he recently received a special covid grant from the Canadian government designed exclusively for black-owned businesses.
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Adding to the irony, during the same conversation, he stated that Nigerians who migrated to North America were much more successful than blacks who were born here.
“Why would that be the case if the system was the cause of black failures?” I asked, obviously confused.
“Different mindset,” he responded.
“We Nigerians have a go-go mentality.”
“We are smart enough to go around the system,” he continued, holding on to the idea that the system had a part to play.
Two things stood out to me from his response that I posed back to him as questions:
If we can go around the system, why don’t we share this ‘trick’ with others?
If we successfully changed the mentality of the ‘other blacks,’ would we change their outcomes?
That suggested that the ‘system’ might not be the culprit. Two groups of blacks, each from different backgrounds having different outcomes within the same system, do not point to injustice in the system being the root cause of the failing group’s lack of success. One can argue that the Nigerian immigrant group did not go around the system but instead utilized the Canadian system to achieve their success. Remember that it is this same system that allows black entrepreneurs the opportunity to access special grants that are available solely based on the colour of their skin. This is in addition to any other grants available to the general public.
At this point, I am not suggesting that everyone should be given the same opportunities today - that is a whole different discussion. I am just as happy as the other black guy to take a leg up, knowing there could be ‘leg downs’ in other areas. The part that gets me agitated is when one gets these advantages but still cries that the system is somehow screwing them over.