Bigotry can exist in people and systems.

To explain the systems piece, let me tell you a story about systemic racism towards Germans in Texas.

In 2009 I spent the better part of a year photographing antique Texas furniture in 100+ homes around our state. It was for a project started by Miss Ima Hogg in the years before her death in 1974.

One afternoon found me in the home of a rancher outside of Fredericksburg, Texas.

I was there to photograph a cabinet he owned that was built some time around 1850.

When I walked in I was startled to hear what I thought was the sound of two people speaking German, and one person speaking a German dialect that sounded funny.

The two German speakers were visitors from Germany who came to deliver the giant Spinning Christmas Tower seen at Christmas time in Fredericksburg’s town square every year.

The third was the ranch owner.

I asked him where he learned his version of German, and he said, despite being born in Texas, it was his first language.

He told me about how there were still a few Texas German speakers left in the area, but the language was all but dead.

When I asked why it had died off, he said it was systematic.

During WWII, fear of German infiltration was rampant. German people were looked at skeptically, regardless of how long they had been here.

The language was the obvious flag.

His parents told him they had to “act less German” and just needed to blend in.

The school system was built to reinforced that too.

This man failed 1st grade TWICE because the teachers were suddenly unwilling to teach anyone in German any longer, despite having done so before.

An entire dialect of the German language was snuffed out as a result.

At this point only a handful of speakers remain in the area.

And a young boy was held back from educational progress for two formative years of his development. Years that studies have shown can have massive educational and financial implications later in life.

Contrast that to the Czech population in the West, Texas area where the Czech language still has stronger roots and cultural significance.

Texas would not be Texas without the amazing contributions of the German immigrants.

But intentional or not, the educational and behavioral changes made out of fear of a group of people, had long term implications for their culture.

It’s hard to imagine a Texas where Oktoberfest in the fall wasn’t celebrated as much as it is through central and north Texas.

But there was a time when the people and things that make it so important were targeted overtly and systematically.

The takeaway here is simple.

Although you might not personally identify with the people who are fighting to break down systematic racism they say effects them, that’s not a reason to say it doesn’t exist.

It likely has existed for someone like you before. Maybe not recently, but likely at some point.

For as long as there has been society, there have been groups of people pointing at other groups of people as “the problem” and doing things that make it harder for them.

If you can’t understand Black people wanting change, read about the experiences the Irish, Jewish, and German immigrants had in the early years of our country’s history.

Sometimes it’s easier to understand if the shoes you’re trying to walk in, look like the ones you’re wearing.

Stephen Colbert spoke about those experiences as it applies to Mexicans.

Fun fact: the picture of the Mexican is a photo of my Dad that I shot way back in the day and was licensed by the show.

And if you want to better understand the Texas German dialect’s decline. My good friend @Katy_Vine wrote a wonderful piece on it 7 years ago, that details the laws and WWI implications for its decline of use. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/auf-wiedersehen-to-a-dialect/amp/