Racism’s defining harm is forcing black Americans into perpetual self-justification

Evidence

As Toni Morrison has said, “The very serious function of racism…is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and so you spend 20 years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says that you have no art so you dredge that up. Somebody says that you have no kingdoms and so you dredge that up. None of that is necessary.” — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 603

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Morrison reframes racism not as material deprivation but as a tax on attention and explanation — a distinct, defensible harm model with its own remedies.
• DEFINE: Defines a subtle cultural mechanism: racism as distraction that consumes black time and proving-energy.