Princeton Professor: Racism in America as Common as Rain

Speaking in a panel on MSNBC’s “Melissa Harris-Perry” with Dr. Johnathan Metzl of Vanderbilt University, who said the Charleston shooting is a “wake-up call for white America,” associate professor of African-American Religion and Literature at Princeton Yolanda Pierce shared her thoughts on the Charleston shooting and what it means for America.

According to Pierce, racism in America is as common as rain, and the broken systems are to blame for the “racist institutions and structures.”

“It makes perfect sense. Racism in this country is as ubiquitous as rain. So it makes perfect sense. Instead of saying, ‘This is a lone wolf or someone we can’t imagine,’ he told us why he did what he did and he told us who he hated and he told us why. We have to take that seriously so we stop thinking, ‘Oh, this is just an individual and it won’t happen again.’ It happens with great degree of regularity. It’s broken, our systems are broken. Our institutions and our structures are racist.”

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